The Fundamentals of Caring

Life is full of terrible surprises.

Benjamin Benjamin was at rock bottom. Homeless and down to his last penny, he hadn’t had a job interview in 9 years, let alone an actual job.

Enrolling on twenty-eight-hour night course in the Fundamentals of Care-giving seemed the smart thing to do. But nothing in the manual could have prepared Ben for dealing with his first client, Trevor, a sarcastic nineteen year old in the advanced stages of muscular dystrophy. We’re not very sure Ben read the manual that thoroughly, either.

The first rule of care-giving is be Professional. Ben should not tell Trevor why his wife Janet is divorcing him, the mysterious “disaster’ that lead to the loss of his children, or that he contemplated suicide last night.

The second rule of care-giving is don't get emotionally involved. When a Trevor’s estranged father gets in touch, Ben should not pack Trevor into back of a campervan and begin a gloriously disastrous road trip across America to visit him.

But of course he does.

A funny, life-affirming story of an unlikely friendship, the journey of a lifetime and finding hope and redemption after terrible tragedy.