Here If You Need Me

This true story, which begins with a death, will make you laugh as well as cry and will certainly leave you uplifted. Briefly, when Braestrup's husband, Drew, a Maine State Trooper, is killed in a car accident, Braestrup decides to pursue her husband's dream of becoming a Maine Warden Service chaplin. The subsequent story interweaves anecdotes of her Warden Service ministry with reflections on how she and her four young children coped and ultimately triumphed. Braestrup reads in an unexpectedly childlike voice. Her phrasing and pacing are perfect, though, so one soon forgets the almost saccharine voice and concentrates on the beautiful writing and funny, moving story. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Starred review from April 23, 2007
I
t may take ingenuity to interest browsers in a memoir by a middle-aged mother who, 11 years ago, was suddenly widowed, then became a Unitarian-Universalist minister, and now works as chaplain to game wardens in Maine. But good memoir writing does not depend on celebrity or adventure—who’d have thought that a self-confessed recovering neurotic like Anne Lamott or a monastically inclined poet like Kathleen Norris would make it big?—and Braestrup’s insightful essays are extraordinarily well written, mingling elements of police procedural and touching love story with trenchant observations about life and death. Alert to comic detail even in grisly circumstances (bears, for example, like to play ball with human skulls), she tells stories of lost children, a suicide, drunken accidents and a murder, always with compassion and a concern for the big questions inescapably provoked by tragic events. “Why did Dad die?” her children ask, and her response describes not only her theology but also her reason for being a chaplain: “Nowhere in scripture does it say 'God is a car accident’ or 'God is death.’ God is justice and kindness, mercy, and always—always—love. So if you want to know where God is in this or in anything, look for love.”

November 15, 2007
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 kindnesswhich included brownies from a neighbor with whom she had only a nodding acquaintance and enough casseroles to fill the family freezerBraestrup 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, Univ. of North Alabama, Florence, AL

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2007
Braestrup was an accidental chaplain. Her husband, Drew, a Maine state trooper, died in a car accident at a time when he was considering a second career as an ordained minister. After her shock subsided, Braestrup decided to follow in his footstepsand became a chaplain for the Maine Warden Service, which sets up search-and-rescue missions throughout the state.Practical, unsentimental, straightforward, she is the kind of person who considers a book entitled Death to Dust: What Happens to Dead Bodies? a romantic gift (Drews to her on her thirty-first birthday). She, not the mortician, bathed and dressed Drews body. Shewitnessed its cremation. And, rather anomalously, she, a middle-aged mother of four, works mostly with young men. Herown remarkable storyencompasses thoseof the men and women who work alongside her, incorporating many touching anecdotes, none more moving than that of the state police detective, a breast-feeding mother whose last name is Love, who arrests a sexual predator for a young womans murder. A poignant, funny book by a sympathetic, likable, immensely appealing figure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)