Not Quite Heaven

At the end of World War 2, with her father dead and her grieving mother pre-occupied with the new baby, a small girl playing in the débris of Liverpool’s bombed streets cherished the family’s occasional walks with the pram up to Hatton Hill, where she could play on the grass beside the smart new church while her Mum found solace inside. Perhaps heaven was a bit like Hatton Hill? Maybe she could live on Hatton Hill one day? Brenda Courtie’s childhood prayer was answered in 1980 when her husband became Vicar of Hatton Hill. She had travelled a long way to cover the two miles from the Bootle docks where she was born to the ‘heaven’ of her childhood fancy. Along the way, she found a faith in God that worked and an appreciation of the gifts of laughter, friendship, music, marriage and motherhood.