Her husband Drew had been planning on leaving the state police to become a minister. He wanted to serve as a chaplain to the Maine State Police, helping the men in a job he'd once done.

After his death, Braestrup took up his dream and made it hers. When she finished the seminary, she became the chaplain to the Maine State Game Wardens. In this job she is there for searches-and-rescues, and to be with the families of the missing.

Reading her story herself, Braestrup is a good narrator. Her voice is warm and clear, and it is a comfortable voice. One that the listener can well imagine hearing in a time of need. The story itself is presented in what feels like a series of essays on her life. It begins with the search for a missing child. Braestrup talks about how she gets the call and heads out to meet the sea plane that will take her to the site on a lake. She learns of the circumstances, and then goes to be with the parents as they wait for their daughter to be found.

Braestrup'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, in that park, watching and waiting for a little girl who followed her dog into the woods and disappeared.

This story ends happily. One of the dogs tracks the child and finds her asleep under the bushes. She is polite, but seems unsurprised to be found. She thanks the warden for offering to take her back to her parents, and agrees to take his hand, but declines to be carried.

Many of the stories Braestrup tells do not end happily. In fact, the search teams know going in that they won't. A missing woman who was depressed and possibly suicidal, a missing college student, abducted in the parking lot of her college.

For the game wardens, Braestrup is there to talk, oftentimes not about anything in particular, and they find comfort in her presence. Her friendship brings peace to men who all too often know they will find a body at the end of their search.

Sometimes she goes out with a warden on a "ride-along," just to see what kind of work they do on a regular basis. These stories are lovely, full of revelations about the men and women who do these jobs, their great love for both the outdoors, and the work that allows them to be exactly where they want to be the most.

Braestrup also tells the story of her husband's death. She, along with friends and family, bathed and dressed his body. They stayed with him as his body was cremated. Later they scattered his ashes together.

Her story is one of great love, great devotion, and while sad, also of great joy. Her children, two boys and two girls, are drawn as so very real you feel that you would recognize them if you saw them on the street. She also tells of dealing with their grief, their anger at losing their father.

I enjoyed the book a great deal. I listened to it for five and a half hours in the waiting room of a hospital while my husband was having surgery. Maybe this made it particularly meaningful to me. Words of comfort, the story of life going on in spite of tragedy.

There were moments when the essays seemed to wander a bit, become repetitive. Mostly this happened in those places where she was discussing theology, talking about the philosophy of her faith.

When Braestrup is talking 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, which caused people to stare at me in the waiting room of the hospital. This strange woman listening to something on a small CD player! She's laughing! This is not a place for laughter!

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.

It is a lovely book.