Here If You Need Me
Kate Braestrup, 2007
Little, Brown and Company
224 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316066310
Summary
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 5, 1962
• Where—Washington, D.C.
• Education—Parsons School of Design, New School for Social
Research; Georgetown University; Bangor Theological
• Currently—Lincolnville, Maine, USA
Kate Braestrup was raised in Washington, D.C., and met her husband-to-be, James Andrew ("Drew") Griffith, when they both were students. They married in 1985 and moved to Maine when Drew was hired as a state trooper. While raising a family, Braestrup found time to do some writing, and in 1990 she published Onion, a first novel whose title derives from a nickname for their son Owen. Drew was planning to retire from police work and begin training for the Unitarian ministry when tragedy struck. En route to work one morning in 1996, he died in a car accident, leaving Braestrup a widow and single mother of four.
It was in the course of working through her grief that Braestrup found her true calling. Inspired by Drew's dream of becoming a Unitarian minister, she enrolled in Bangor Theological Seminary, was ordained in 2004, and joined the Maine Game Warden Service as a law enforcement chaplain. In this capacity, she responds to dozens of wilderness emergencies, from lost hikers and accident victims to suicides and the occasional murder, offering comfort and counsel to people in need. She recounted her remarkable odyssey in Here if You Need Me, a memoir filled with insightful observations on grief and loss, life and death, God and nature. Published in 2007, the book was a National Book Award finalist and received the Barnes & Noble Discover Award for Nonfiction.
Braestrup has since happily remarried and now lives in Maine with her blended family. In between her ministerial duties, she contributes freelance articles to various publications.
Extras
From a 2008 Barnes & Noble interview:
• Braestrup comes by her writing ability honestly. Her father, Peter Braestrup, was a noted war correspondent, writer, and journalist; founded The Wilson Quarterly; and served as Senior Editor and Director of Communications for the Library of Congress.
• Braestrup's grandfather, Carl Bjorn Braestrup, worked on the Manhattan Project and co-invented a cobalt-therapy machine used for cancer treatment.
• Braestrup confesses: "I knit too much. I knit my Christmas presents, I knit leg warmers for all the children in my daughter's graduating class; I knit hats for all the editorial staff at Little Brown, I knit all the insulation in my house and am thinking of knitting a cozy for the car. My children are convinced that, if the house caught fire, I would save my knitting basket before I'd save them. (Does my knitting basket have its own perfectly good legs? I ask them.)
• When asked what book most influenced her life or career as a writer, here's what she said—
When I was about seven, my mother handed me the book she had just finished reading. "I think you'll like this," she said. "Even though it is a grownups' book." It was Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals. It was a memoir of a childhood spent on the Greek island of Corfu. Durrell, the younger brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell, was a naturalist, zookeeper, and early advocate of conservation, and he wrote about the animals he encountered and the family and friends of his childhood with equal affection, humor and enthusiasm. My friend Natasha and I went on to read all of Durrell's books. Quite recently, I wrote to Durrell to tell him that Natasha and I each considered him an inspiration for our subsequent careers, mine as a writer and hers as a wildlife biologist. Unfortunately, by the time I sent the letter, Gerald Durrell was dead. (Author bio and interview from Barnes & Noble.)
Book Reviews
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.
Jane Ciabattari - Washington Post
Braestrup's narration about her work as a chaplain with Maine's fish and game wardens is filled with the same comfort she offers those she ministers to. Her friendly, easygoing northeastern-accented voice is instantly soothing whether she is talking about the happy outcome of a search-and-rescue mission or her husband's tragic death, which spurred her on the road to her new job. Her reading has an often prayerful cadence, though she goes easy on Bible quotation and her discussions of theological issues are so wise and well-thought-out that even the nonreligious won't be put off. Mixed with cute stories about raising her four kids, she offers keenly observed anecdotes about what she's seen on the job, accompanying wardens as they pick up fishermen without permits or search for kids lost in the woods. "My job is so cool," Braestrup repeats often, and her enthusiasm comes through clearly in her lively narration. Whether listeners are in need of a reassuring voice, Braestrup's brief memoir embraces in a most welcome, heartwarming way.
Publishers Weekly
Braestrup understands that women aren't always allowed the luxury of solitude during the grieving process. After her husband, Drew, a Maine state trooper, was killed in a car accident, she was left to explain the loss to their four children while trying to maintain her own equilibrium. Amazed by the outpouring of kindness-which included brownies from a neighbor with whom she had only a nodding acquaintance and enough casseroles to fill the family freezer- Braestrup decides that God can be found where there is love. Drew had intended to become a Unitarian Universalist minister when the time came for him to retire, continuing to be of service to his brothers and sisters in arms. In the midst of the many changes in her life, Braestrup chose to attend divinity school with the idea of completing Drew's dream. Here if You Need Me is the story of how she makes her husband's dream her own and eventually becomes the chaplain for Maine's Wildlife and Game Service. Braestrup's strength is evident throughout the memoir, which is by turns funny, tender, and frightening, yet always reinforced by the undercurrent of great love. Here If You Need Me is recommended for public libraries.
Pam Kingsbury - Library Journal
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 book about applied theology by someone practicing her faith in a rough-and-tumble world.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Kate Braestrup admits that before serving as chaplain to the Maine Warden Service, she had little idea of what the position entailed, joking that people ask her "What does a warden service chaplain do? Bless the moose?" (p. 62) Did you know the role that game wardens play prior to reading Here if You Need Me? Were you in a situation that required the Warden Service, would you want the assistance of a chaplain?
2. In the Author's Note, Kate writes that her favorite definition of the Greek word Logos is "story." Of the many stories Kate tells in Here if You Need Me from her role as Warden Service chaplain, which was your favorite?
3. When Kate was a child, she believed she experienced a vision of Jesus Christ from her family's car, only to find a few days later it was a fiberglass statue placed in a memorial garden. Have you ever encountered an unexplainable situation? Like Kate, did you eventually find the explanation?
4. Early on Kate writes "I love my uniform. Quite apart from whatever unwholesome sartorial fetish this may reflect, my uniform is so useful." (p. 64) Do you share a similar feeling about an aspect of your profession? If so, what is the cause of the attachment?
5. Although Drew was employed as a Maine State Trooper, Kate writes he had planned to begin a second "career" as a minister. Have you ever considered changing professions? If so, what new occupation would you choose?
6. Upon her decision to become an ordained minister, Kate's brother writes to her expressing his skepticism about religion. How are these email interchanges important to Kate in how she regards her own faith?
7. At one point Kate writes "that's where I still feel most religious; when I'm out in the woods." (p. 186) Discuss the role nature plays in her memoir, both as it impacts her profession and her faith.
8. Kate offers several plausible definitions of the word "miracle", then asserts that "a miracle is not defined by an event. A miracle is defined by gratitude." (p. 181) Do you agree with this interpretation? Did reading Here if You Need Me alter the way in which you view miracles in any way?
9. Near the memoir's end, Kate concludes "I can't make those two realities—what I've lost and what I've found—fit together in some tidy pattern of divine causality. I just have to hold them on the one hand and on the other, just like that." Do you agree with Kate's resolution?
10. At one point Kate offers proof that God has a sense of humor, and despite the tragic events described in the memoir, there are many humorous moments as well. How does humor serve Kate and the wardens she works with in their professional capacities? What was your favorite funny moment?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
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