Why Can't I Go to Heaven Like My Brother? ; That's the Heartbreaking Question Five-Year-Old Hattie Asks As She Watches Little Freddie Losing His Fight Against Terminal Illness. Here, Their Mother Reveals How an Inspiring Team of Carers Is Helping Them Through an Unimaginable Ordeal [Scot Region Edition 2]

Summary

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FIVE-YEAR-OLD Hattie Read wants to know why she can't go to heaven. Her big brother Sidney is already up there, and her little brother Freddie is going soon, so why can't she? Can't she go up to play for a bit, then come back in time for school? Her mother Vicki explains that heaven doesn't really work like that, and that Hattie won't be going there for a long, long time because she is not poorly like her brothers.

Hattie was just 11 months old when her brother Sidney died of a rare degenerative condition. He was three. Now, four years later, Hattie is watching her two-year-old brother Freddie die of the same condition.

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Why Can't I Go to Heaven Like My Brother? ; That's the Heartbreaking Question Five-Year-Old Hattie Asks As She Watches Little Freddie Losing His Fight Against Terminal Illness. Here, Their Mother Reveals How an Inspiring Team of Carers Is Helping Them Through an Unimaginable Ordeal [Scot Region Edition 2]

But how do you explain to a five-year-old why she has already lost one brother and is about to lose another? Sometimes her mother is at a loss over what to say.

It is hard to appreciate fully just how many tiers of support are needed for the 20,000 British families who, like the Reads, are caring for a dying child.

It's not just a case of looking after the sick child, there's the emotional and practical support needed by the parents, siblings, grandparents and friends whose lives are falling apart.

This help might be needed for weeks, months or even years.

When Vicki, 35, and her husband John, 43, were told that their seven-month-old son had j...

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