The Well is Deep:

COVID Through a Chaplain’s Eyes

Hillary’s memoir from her time working as a hospital chaplain in Seattle during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To be published by Tehom Center Publishing on JUNE 2, 2026!

Patients, families, and clinical staff look to hospital chaplains for spiritual and emotional support during a crisis. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, chaplains witnessed the same horrors as everyone else. What happens when the helpers need help? How do healers find healing?

Critical care chaplain Hillary Kimsey was working in a downtown Seattle hospital when the USA’s first COVID-19 case appeared just miles away. By December 2020, she was diagnosed with PTSD. Walk the hospital halls with her as she remembers and reflects on four years of witnessing, suffering, and surviving the pandemic—and discover how those who care for others can draw from the well within to heal.

What readers are saying…

  • “Deep theological grounding and public courage. "

    -Doug Pagitt
    Pastor, Author, & Executive Director of Vote Common Good

  • “This book healed something in me. In a world that tells us to not acknowledge the loss and trauma of COVID, Hillary‘s memoir creates a sacred space and practical model for processing that we ALL need.”

    -Rev. Kate Harmon Siberine
    Disabled Body of Christ TikTok Community


  • “Experience danger, shock, intensity, anger, heartbreak, and despair sprinkled with hope and joy on the COVID-19 frontline through Seattle chaplain Hillary’s heart. Join her vulnerable, heroic, exhausting journey compassionately, meaningfully supporting dying patients, grief-stricken families, and woefully stretched healthcare colleagues while reaching out and within for recovery. Suspenseful. Breathtaking. Inspiring.”

    - Rev. Jill Rasmussen-Baker, MDiv, BCC, ACPE-CE.
    Director of Spiritual Care, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA

  • “A deeply human story of sinking, surviving, and surfacing. This memoir reminds us that hope is not the absence of grief, but what remains when grief is fully honored. With raw vulnerability and luminous faith, Hillary traces the hidden cost of compassion and the quiet miracles that sustained her. Honest, brave, and ultimately life-giving, this book invites readers to tend their own wounds and discover that even after submersion, it is possible to rise into new life.”

    - Bishop Brian N. Prior, Senior Advisor for the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
    Professionally Certified Coach with Prioritize Coaching

  • “Hillary's nuanced sensibility and God-given grit shines through in this jaw-droppingly honest and uplifting book. Here is a person thoroughly steeped in Biblical story, emotionally and psychologically transparent and full of hope for herself and us. Usable on account of reflection questions and inspiring. Wow!”

    -The Most Rev. Melissa M. Skelton
    Bishop Provisional of Olympia, Retired

  • “As an ICU doc at the peak of COVID, I strongly recommend Hillary’s narrative. It’s incredibly raw, real, personal, and shows the humanity, turmoil, and inside story of the emotional toll that COVID took on all of our souls.”

    - Dr. Leslie Jette
    Pulmonary MD & Critical Care Staff

  • “Poignant, gritty and inspirational, I found The Well Is Deep to be a compelling and heartwarming spiritual journey that welcomes everyone. A must read!”

    -Rev.  Dr. Sandra Bochonok
    Former US Navy Chaplain, retired hospice counselor, and MCC spiritual director

  • “A raw and unfiltered account of life in the health care profession during COVID, Kimsey paints the pandemic in its grim, honest light with no attempt to hide the messy parts. A gritty, visceral read filled with equal parts of grief, anger, loss, and hope and understanding.”

    -Dr. Mary Edelson
    Neonatologist

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