Here If You Need Me: A True Story

This book was beautifully moving

For human interest stories with a spiritual side, you can't beat this author. As the chaplain for a rescue service, Kate Braestrup has outstanding material and deals with it in a sensitive, thoughtful, interesting way. Unforgettable.

Perhaps Unitarian Universalist chaplains don't pray for weather (a joke in the book, actually), but here's a prayer Chaplain Braestrup offered for law enforcement officers: " 'May you be granted capable and amusing comrades, observant witnesses, and gentle homecomings. " 'May you be granted respite from what you know of human evil, and refuge from what you must know of human pain. " 'May God defend the goodness in your hearts. " 'May God defend the sweetness in your souls.' " Kate Braestrup's HERE IF YOU NEED ME swoons, sighs, mourns, celebrates, and etches out new patterns of thought. In twenty beautifully written chapters that could be delivered as commencement speeches or sermons, tough-minded, tender-hearted Braestrup shines an examining spotlight into various corners of her life. She suddenly became a widowed mother of four. She studied for and was ordained to the U. U. ministry. She still is the chaplain to the Maine game wardens. Her vivid, visceral prose grapples with the physical realities of life (and death) on the one hand. On the other, it contemplates tenderly, lovingly, such spiritual subjects as whether an afterlife exists or how suicides should be treated by the church. Freely irreverent, and often funny and pithy, Braestrup arranges glimpses of her various charges: her children, her game wardens, and the public she and the wardens serve with determination and full hearts. But the author excels best when she unabashedly shares her own individuality. For instance, unease (or even revulsion) vies with admiration in the reader as Braestrup tells of bucking the modern trend of leaving the newly dead to the ministrations of funeral homes. She washed her dead husband's body herself and saw to the details of his cremation. And talk about think-for-herself theology: her perspective on miracles is unforgetably novel... "A miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude." HERE IF YOU NEED ME is a miracle, too, in its own way. Readers may feel gratitude at sharing in Braestrup's memorable memoirs.

As a mother of four and wife to Maine State trooper Drew Griffith, Kate Braestrup thought her life was in order as a wife, mother, and writer. Drew's plans though were to go to school to become a Unitarian minister. Suddenly though, Kate becomes a widow and then decides to pursue Drew's dream. She becomes a Unitarian minister and begins working with the Maine Game Warden department, mainly ministering to the families of those involved in search and rescue attempts - the hikers, the lost snowmobilers, the swimmers falling over a waterfall, the despondent young women, the lost children. However this book isn't, as I had first thought, simply full of anecdotes of Kate's involvement with search and rescue attempts. Oh no, it is much, much more than that. There, are plenty of interesting anecdotes that's for sure but it is a story of Kate's life as a single mother, as a spiritual woman, as a spiritual leader, and as a caring human being. It is a book full of the essays of a talented writer giving her take on life, death, and heaven, all in a gentle way where it is easy to imagine the skill in which she is able to minister to those in need. She does so without judging anyone be they a fundamentalist, atheist, agnostic, or of any other belief. There is the story of a young suicide victim whose brother she counsels and consoles as he is worried she will be unable to have a Christian burial because of the way she died, there is the story of the parents Kate spends the night consoling with after their daughter goes missing, answering the atheist mother who says, "It's so cool that the warden service has a chaplain to keep us from freaking out," by responding,"I'm not really here to keep you from freaking out. I'm here to be with you while you freak out." And here is the story of Kate, the mother, helping her four children get over the death of their beloved father, all the while in deep mourning herself. Kate who loved her husband so deeply. So very deeply that she does for her husband what few new widows will ever do in this modern age. All I can say is WOW. I don't know when I have been so moved by a book. The reader will be moved to tears, laugh out loud, begin a spiritual awakening - and keep the book nearby for re-reading of Kate's essays again and again. You will wish she was your friend, your pastor. You will wish you had the honor of having her wisdom nearby on a daily basis. But since you don't reading this book will have to suffice. The world would be a better place if there were more Kate Braestrups in it. God bless you Kate and thank you for sharing a part of your world and your wisdom in this magnificent read.

This remarkable memoir has it all: the courageous journey of a young widow through tragedy, insight filled adventures in the Maine woods and a refreshing view of the role of the spirit in today's world - all told with delightful humor and Downeast common sense. Once you've read it, you're sure to give it to all your friends.

Yesterday I was delighted to receive an earlier than expected shipment of Kate's book. I am making myself slow down to read and savor every word. Kate has an amazing gift with words, rather written or spoken. She captures your attention, shares some amazing concepts, but more importantly embraces your heart.