Here if you Need Me, A True Story A Novel by Kate Braestrup Little Brown © 2007 Reviewed by Sheila Vitali

Braestrup is a community minister affiliated with the Rockland church, which ordained her in June 2004. She works from her home in Thomaston, where she also does freelance writing. She never knows where she'll be the next day. “I might work a 40- or 50-hour week compressed into three days. Other days not much may happen and I'll stay home and make phone calls and attend meetings. When my beeper goes off, there I go. The best part is when they pick me up in a float plane.”

Her book Here if You Need Me is a wonderful true story of a person who triumphs over the loss of her husband.  She decides to fulfill her husband’s dream of being a Minister and attends Bangor Theological Seminary School.   She then becomes the first Chaplain ever for the Maine Warden Service to search-and-rescue workers.  Her stories of her family and her work will have you laughing and crying.  Because the story is about her life and work in Maine, you will find yourself mentally keeping score on the locations of her stories.  She writes about someone from Billerica and you will find yourself trying to figure out if you know of this person.   

I highly recommend this book.  It was an easy, quick read. 

Enjoy!
Sheila Vitali

More on Kate Braestrup and her work.

First Congregational Church
18 Andover Rd.
Billerica, MA 01821
Phone: 978-663-8433
Pastor: Rev. Dr. Sharon Goss