The Blue Hill Library and Blue Hill Books are cosponsoring an author talk with Brooklin resident and pastor Alice Aldrich Hildebrand for her new memoir, A Matter of Death and Life on Thursday, September 4 at 7PM in the library's Howard Room. 

A memoir of caregiving for the author's elderly father in his last years, this book is also about the loss of a beloved career as a hospital chaplain and a reflection on the many "deaths" experienced throughout life. Family dysfunction and fierce love, recovery from addiction, regret and guilt, thanksgiving and hopefulness are woven through the saga of accompanying an infuriating, deeply loved parent to his death. The timeline of this memoir intersects with the beginning of the COVID pandemic, which made everything more complicated. Because the author is a pastoral theologian and preacher, biblical reflection is woven into the narrative, as well as reflections on mortality from other sources. Throughout, the author probes deeply into the realities of her own aging and death, providing insights that will be helpful to thoughtful readers of all ages as well as to other caregivers.

Alice Aldrich Hildebrand has been a resident of Brooklin since the 70s. Her family began summering on Flye Point in 1909. Her memoir, the story of caregiving for her father in his last years, A Matter of Death and Life, was published by Wipf and Stock in May 2025. She graduated from Bangor Theological Seminary with a Master’s of Divinity. She has served as associate pastor at the Blue Hill Congregational Church, UCC, pastor at the Deer Isle Sunset Congregational Church, UCC, and the West Brooksville Congregational Church, UCC. She has been a Board-Certified Chaplain who has worked in several Maine hospitals, in home-based medical hospice and palliative care, and as a Pediatric Chaplain. She has published research in the Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy, and contributed to two anthologies of chaplaincy research. She has received numerous awards for her poetry, and her stories and poetry have appeared in "Killick Stones", a collection of Maine island writing; and "Puckerbrush Review." A chapbook of her poems, Re-Membering, was published by Finishing Line Press, in 2022.

This program is free and open to all. Blue Hill Books will be on site with copies of the book available for purchase. For more information, please call the library at 374-5515, or email Assistant Director Kayleigh Thomas at kayleigh.thomas@bhpl.net.