Here if You Need Me: A True Story

by Kate Braestrup

Overview

When the oldest of Kate Braestrup's four children was ten years old, her husband, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident. Stunned and grieving, she decided to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister, and eventually began working with the Maine Game Warden Service, which conducts the state's search and rescue operations when people go missing in the wilderness.

Whether she is with parents whose 6-year-old daughter has wandered into the woods, or wardens as they search for a snowmobile rider gone under ice, or a man whose sister left an infant seat and a suicide note in her car by the side of the road, Braestrup provides solace, comfort, and spiritual guidance when it's needed most. And she comes to discover that giving comfort is both a high calling and a precious gift.

In her account of her own life and the events of her unusual job, sometimes joyful, sometimes heartbreaking, Braestrup is warm, unsentimental ("No one is immune to the Plucky Widow story!" she acknowledges), and generous. HERE IF YOU NEED ME is a funny, frank, and deeply moving story of faith and hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316066303
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	08/01/2007
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Kate Braestrup is one of the first chaplains ever appointed to the Maine Warden Service. She is the author of a novel, Onion, and has written for Mademoiselle, Ms., City Paper, Hope, and Law and Order. She in lives in Maine with her husband, Simon van der Ven, and their six children.

Hometown:

Lincolnville, Maine

Date of Birth:

June 5, 1962

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

Parsons School of Design, New School for Social Research 1979-81; Georgetown University 1983-1986; Bangor Theological

Editorial Reviews

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
Kate Braestrup was living an enviably happy life as a wife and mother, when one morning her beloved husband was killed in a traffic accident. Fighting her grief, she decided to follow his dream -- and became a chaplain to the game warden service in their Maine community.

Game wardens, it turns out, are a special breed, and they need to be. They're just as likely to be called to the scene of a drunk driver, a suicide, or a murder as they are to a search, sometimes successful, for a child missing in the woods. And the bonds these preternaturally decent, if gently impious, officers forge with Braestrup presage the quick yet deep connections she must make to help grieving family members face a sudden, devastating loss -- one she knows well.

What's most remarkable about Here if You Need Me is that the comfort and solace Braestrup strives to impart to those she encounters is also conferred upon her readers. Her narrative is insightful, funny, and heartfelt. She has faith, certainly, and a belief that true grace lies in the facility for gratitude. In fact, her memoir does everything a good memoir should: It makes you smile and cry and feel truly grateful that Braestrup decided to share her experiences -- both joyous and painful -- for the betterment of those who would find it. (Fall 2007 Selection)

Kate Braestrup's Here if You Need Me can be read as a superbly crafted memoir of love, loss, grief, hope and the complex subtleties of faith. Or it can be read as the journey of a strong-minded, warmhearted woman through tragedy to grace…The meat of the book is Braestrup's description of her work as chaplain to the game wardens who conduct search-and-rescue missions for the state of Maine. And this element of the memoir alone is enough to make it fascinating, as she describes traveling with the wardens in search of murder victims, suicides, straying children and lost hikers. She accompanies the wardens to give comfort to the loved ones of those who are missing, to attend to the remains of those found dead and to minister to the wardens themselves…In Here if You Need Me, she allows us to stand with her while she ministers to those who are lucky enough to have the remarkable, steady, peaceful and wise Kate Braestrup to comfort them.
—The Washington Post

Jane Ciabattari

The life-and-death experiences of the first female chaplain in the Maine Warden Service. Novelist and journalist Braestrup (Onion, 1990) became a Unitarian Universalist minister after her husband was killed in a car accident. He had planned to join the ministry after he retired from the Maine State Police, and she decided to honor his memory by achieving his goal and devoting herself to law-enforcement-related service. Her stories of search-and-rescue operations in the Maine woods make it clear that she quickly became very good at helping others. When disaster struck, she traveled with the wardens, clad in the same uniform but with a plastic clerical collar attached, sharing their jokes, their cold and discomfort and their bad meals. Though they gently taunted her with such nicknames as "Holy Mother" and "Your Holiness," the wardens seemed to enjoy having Braestrup along and to value her presence. It freed them up to do their own jobs when she reached out to provide on-the-spot comfort to the parents of a lost child, the wife of a man who disappeared while ice fishing, as well as other frightened, stressed-out and grief-stricken people. Interspersed among accounts of violent death and dismemberment in the wilderness are sweeter, sadder essays: detailed recollections of preparing her husband's body for cremation; confessions of her paranoia about their four children's safety; and surprisingly unorthodox thoughts on heaven and hell, miracles, prayer and Jesus. Braestrup's occasionally self-mocking prose conveys a warmth and humor that lighten some heartbreaking, even gruesome scenes. Her characters and story lines seem custom-made for a high-quality television series. A heartening bookabout applied theology by someone practicing her faith in a rough-and-tumble world.

Kirkus Reviews

Reading her story, Braestrup is a good narrator. Her voice is warm and clear, and it is a comfortable voice. One that the listerner can well imagine hearing in time of need. Braesrup's style is almost plain language, but to think of it as simple is a disservice. It is straight-forward, honest, and puts us there. When Braestrup is talkng in the here and now, about actual events and the people she serves, the book is sharp, clear, and focused. She made me laugh out loud on more  than one occasion. I was comforted by Braestrup's kind voice and gentle story-telling skills. Even the moments in the book that are sad are told in a way that makes you see what an important role she has in this world where things do not always end happily.—-


"....[Kate's] reading of her story has both a tenderness and an authority that make the audiobook an even more intimate experience than the print book...."—AudioFile, -

From the Publisher