Here If You Need Me: A Memoir

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.

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 2009)