“One of our many Episodes!”
Back in 1946, the “Orphans” would be allowed to go home to be with their parents, for the Holidays. My sister, Eve Karen Mc Clarren was born February 16th and for Christmas we were all going to home.
My father came to the German St. Vincent Orphanage on Christmas Eve to pick up my brothers, Denny and Tommy and me and some of our clothes – since we would b e home for two weeks. When we walked in the front door, I can still see in my mind the layout of boxes and baskets of foods and gifts that were for our Christmas. Just looking at all this stuff, I thought we were the richest of people alive. When I compare what I really saw and what was really there, using today’s amounts of food stuffs and thing I would prepare today – we were just average people. It’s that way with a lot of yesterday life seen by a child and when the same is seen by a 50 year old, it shrunk!
We were so happy together, finally – and my mother and our new baby, Eve Karen – needed us – at least me, because I would just love to sit in our Boston rocker and rock my baby sister and sing all the songs I could think of. My brothers had lots of new things to play with and were also helping to sing to our new baby sister. Also, my father was doing all the right things to make every ting work, so that my mother could rest and get some strength back after her long hospital stay.
Our two weeks home went by so fast and we were all so happy, the decision was made that my parents were keeping us at home with them and not to send us back to the Orphanage. My brothers and I were in 7th heaven or so we thought – but Catholic Charities working for the German St. Vincent Orphanage, contacted the St. Louis Court system and proceeded with arrangements to get someone to go to our house and take us from our parents home and bring us back to the Orphanage. By the time all this was done – it was now almost March.
As a child – maybe 9 years old – I felt like a criminal returning to the “ORPHAN HOME” – a lot of the nuns were from Germany – WWII had just ended – and I was treated unmerciful – there was no earthly reason that the NUNS should mistreat small children for what the parents do..
There is so much more that happened that I will have to continue – later.
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