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Stay with Me, I Want to Be Alone: A Chaplain's Search for Meaning
Paperback
Biographies GeneralChristian LivingGeneral Christianity
ISBN13: 9781955051507
Publisher: Punchline Publishing
Published: Oct 3 2025
Pages: 284
Weight: 0.76
Height: 0.64 Width: 5.75 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Keith Wakefield became a chaplain because of Guns N' Roses. As a child burdened by fear of failure, he was inspired by Axl Rose's heart-on-his-sleeve honesty. That raw search for meaning carried him into chaplaincy, where every day he sits with patients and families facing overwhelming loss, end-of-life diagnoses, and the questions that come with them: How do I go on? Where do I find strength? What really matters now?
In Stay with Me, I Want to Be Alone, Wakefield invites readers into the hidden world of hospital chaplaincy - where grief support, spiritual care, and the search for meaning collide. With stories that are sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny, and always human, he shows what it means to be fully present at the bedside of the dying.
This deeply personal spiritual memoir blends humor, vulnerability, and insight to reveal:
- What chaplains really do in hospitals and at the end of life.
- Practical lessons on grief, presence, and how to support others through suffering.
- Honest stories that move from boredom to hilarity, panic to peace, devastating loss to unexpected grace.
Written with candor, wit, and reverence, Wakefield offers an unforgettable look at death, dying, and what the living can learn from both. Vulnerable and curious, sometimes snarky and irreverent, his lyrical voice carries the clarity and hope of a true spiritual traveler.
For readers of memoirs on grief, end-of-life care, and spiritual growth. This book belongs alongside titles by Atul Gawande, Kate Bowler, and Paul Kalanithi.
Wakefield's accessible, almost conversational, writing effectively conveys the trauma, sadness, uncertainty, and hope that a chaplain encounters daily - Kirkus Reviews
Made me laugh, cry, and want to become a chaplain. -Neil Wenger, MD, MPH
Seamlessly weaves memoir and chaplaincy into universal human truth. -James A. Hynds, PhD
A masterclass in healing through genuine presence. -Robyn L. Hacker, PhD
Brings humanity, humor, and reverence to chaplaincy. -Rev. Gina Harvey, ACPE CE, BCC
Rare transparency... a heartfelt perspective unlike any other. -Mary D. Farah, Hospital Chaplain
Brilliant storytelling that delights and instructs. -Angela Song, BCC
Disarmingly honest and captivating... a vindication of spiritual care. -Vanessa Able, The Dewdrop
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