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Bootle cemetery north of Liverpool is a place where we used to frequently pray for the dead when we first got married and bought a house for 2 years in a street nearby. The above memorial is a particularly poignant one as it commemorates the civilians of Bootle who were killed by enemy bombardment during World War II - and especially in the midst of the horrendous Blitz of 1941. Sadly, one of the persons buried there was never able to be identified. Â
Although the Luftwaffe were, in the main, aiming for the city of Liverpool and the docks at Liverpool, Bootle and Seaforth, they did hit civilian areas and devastated homes and communities across Merseyside and on the Wirral peninsula. About a mile from the cemetery my Mum and Dad's home still bears scorch marks in the loft structure from an enemy incendiary device which was meant to guide in the heavy bombers and went somewhat astray!
The Victorian chapel at the heart of Bootle cemetery survived the war intact. Tragically a different variety of vandals are now doing what the Luftwaffe failed to... Every one of the 4 clocks in the tower has now had its face smashed through, the roof has lost a little more of its material integrity each time we visit and the interior has been breached in spite of heavy duty grilles on windows and doors.Up in Liverpool we have a polite, scouse term for those who carry out this type of destruction of the sacred, the artistic or the civilized... We call them 'Brain donors!'
Let us pray for them... and for all who died in the brutal bombing campaigns of that terrible time.
And perhaps say a little prayer for the cause of Teresa Helena Higginson, the Catholic school teacher and stigmatic, who spent from 1879 - 1887 living and teaching in Bootle during her eventful life. She is now buried in a churchyard in Neston over on the Wirral - a place we visited to pray with some friends during the summer months - and is thought by some to be an important intercessor for the reconversion of England.
