Strange Meeting by Susan Hill: why the word 'ahead' lifts the novel out of despair?

Susan Hill’s beautiful and most affecting novel Strange Meeting ends with the word ‘ahead’- a very poignant conclusion to her tenderly composed exploration of friendship during the first world war. In fact it is as if the gift of friendship also brings with it the gift of a new family, where warmth and spontaneity are freely given and returned. ‘Ahead’ is thus a form of resurrection and reconciles loss with hope. Love transcends the barbarism and wanton waste of the trenches.