Hope Street by Pamela Young
This is the story of a family which has always lived in the heart of one of the traditional working class communities of the North. Their triumphs and tragedies unfolded in the cobbled streets, working men's cottages, terraced houses and council houses of Horwich, near Manchester.Hope Street North had more than their fair share of loss and heartbreak. A young girl was run over and killed by a horse and cart and another died of diphtheria. There were affairs, a secret pregnancy, an elopement and a double suicide. Every family has its secrets and tragedies, but this family had this unique gift passed down from generation to generation: the women of the family were able to communicate with the Spirit worlds.Hope Street begins with Pamela's own Spiritualist childhood. One of her earliest memories, dating from when she was about five is of watching as Spiritualist friends arrived for one of her mother's sittings. The children would wait expectantly for the deep silence that preceded their mother's trances, and for the different voices that spoke through her. Her father told her how on one occasion a carnation, real to the touch and bejewelled with dew, materialized in mid air. Pamela would see her mother gradually, and starting from her head down, disappeared before her very eyes.Hope Street continues with the saga of Pamela's family. She traces the way Spirit worked through generation after generation, culminating in her own remarkable mother. It was after her mother's death, when Pamela was in the depths of despair, that she found her own spiritual gift. Guided by the spirit of her mother, she finally understood the prophecy and message of hope for humanity that Spirit had been working to bring to the world.