THE LOUDEST QUIET GIRL

A mother’s memoir on losing her daughter to a tragic car accident.

On December 9, 2013, the author’s only child, Erin Rodriques, was 23 years old, planning her upcoming wedding, and starting a graduate degree program at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. That day, she went missing: She didn’t show up for work at her relatively new job, or come home to her fiance, Josh. Her parents, the author and Abel Rodriques, formed part of a search party, and the next day, Erin was found to have died after her car crashed, upside down, in a local pond. Wedding plans were replaced by funeral plans. What happened, the author says, remains a mystery, but police reported that that the car likely skidded down an icy hill before flipping over. For the next five years, the author researched the details of her daughter’s life, and she offers a sort of scrapbook in this volume, which features plenty of black-and-white photos of Erin and her family members. Erin’s journal writings spoke of her growing Catholic faith, and the author recognized that that she now had to “walk the talk about the afterlife I claimed to have believed in all those years.” The book shows that when someone young dies suddenly, it has great effects on those around them, especially in a tight-knit college community; Erin’s alma mater, Assumption College, created a memorial garden for her. It’s hard not to feel for the author, who writes that she waited a long time to give birth to her only child, and she shows how much she wants the world to know her. Specifically, Rodriques says, she made it her mission to get Erin’s writing about faith into the world, and in that, she is successful. Some of the book’s content will appeal most to people who knew Erin personally. However, anyone who’s lost someone will be able to relate to the author’s search for signs from her deceased daughter.

An earnest remembrance that will be most appropriate for readers trying to strengthen their religious faith after the death of a loved one.