She Didn't Live to Comb Gray Hair (Mary Strand)
This month at YA Outside the Lines, we're talking about something we lost (presumably in our teens) that mattered ... and how, as a result, we write about grief in YA (young adult) novels. For me, the obvious memory was losing a close friend of mine. My classmates and I felt our first loss of a classmate in 8th or 9th grade: a mysterious illness over winter break, and — poof! — Debbie was gone. But as hard as that was, Debbie was just someone I knew, not a close friend. It was sobering, and shocking, but not ultimately devastating for me. Nancee Eberhardt was another story. We had a little group of five friends: not a clique (I've always hated cliques), but we hung out together, especially on weekends or after ballgames. Supie and I were the closest in our little group, so we saw each other a LOT, but Nancee was part of that larger group of five. After high school, our little group mostly drifted apart, except for Supie and me. But we were all (I think) still in Eau C...
