Two Fridays in April

It’s Friday, April 2. Daphne Darling knows that she should be celebrating her stepdaughter Una’s 17th birthday, but it’s hard, because the date also marks the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death, and she and Una just can’t seem to connect anymore. Daphne can’t turn to her own mother Isobel for advice, as their relationship is distant, to say the least, and Mo, Finn’s elderly mother, is still grief-stricken at the death of her only son, so she is of little help. But by the end of that day in April, marking the occasion with a slice of cake and a glass of wine will be the last thing on anyone’s mind. . . Before that Friday, Daphne, Mo, and Isobel were all stuck in the past, with their grief and their loss. And then Una takes matters into her own hands, and even though she makes a terrible mistake, she teaches Daphne, Mo, and Isobel something about life: that it is to be lived and that, in spite of everything they’ve been through, happiness can still be a part of it.