Please help! I am being haunted by a half-remembered passage from a book which captured so well the female protagonist's sense of being bereft...
It was about the loss of love, I think through bereavement but not even sure about that. She was a very engaging character and it created a lot of empathy. I think it was written in the third person..?
She was left alone and then this phrase about being scared / afraid to measure the scale / extent of her loss?
I thought it might have been Penelope in The Shell Seekers (not very highbrow 
) but I can't find it. Does this ring any bells with any one else?