The “Episode” Continues!
The events that stick in my mind are things that happened to me when at the German St. Vincent Orphan Home. My luck was to be there from 1945 to 1952. If it were not for the fact that we were to only be temporarily – placed there – maybe things would have been a lot different for us as a family. The paper work that my Mother signed was just a “formality” for a 6 month term. My Mother wanted a divorce from my Father and had paid three (3) different lawyers, but she was Catholic and Democrat and we had someone in the family in “POLICTICS” who called the shots. One call from her to the lawyers, and they did not work for my Mother any longer, but strung her along taking her money – till finally she was pregnant and could no longer get a divorce.
So, as I was telling about the longer than usual stay home from the “ORPHANAGE” for the Holidays – our return was like putting us in “PRISON” – because that’s way I was treated like a criminal. Earlier, for Christmas, I was telling about the doll with my Aunt Irene Riley’s real hair – and having been to the “Doll Hospital” for a complete makeover and was now a “BRIDE” instead of having been dressed as a WAC – this prize possession of mine – my Christmas gift – was gone! No one in the “ORPHANAGE” knew where my DOLL was. The NUNS said they knew nothing about it and I could not find it in any of the lockers, in the “Girl’s Locker room.
Every September and February – all Lockers are changed so that kids who have left the “Orphanage” or had Graduated from 8th grade – leaving empty lockers – and to keep the lockers in a sequence of older girls by class room grade separate from the first graders – or some such system that the NUNS devised – Everything that I own and did have before going home for the Holidays, I no longer own? All Gone – Everything. And “NO ONE KNOWS – where anything of mine is?
It was like I did not exist anymore? Why not leave me stay home with my parents, if I was no long wanted and all my possessions could be taken and sent to “Germany!”
Let me tell you – not all children are better off living in “Orphanages” or other places – that are only interested in the money they receive. For us to live at the “Orphanage” Catholic Charities collected my Father’s pension and got a Court Order for $10.00 per child – per week. There were other families whose parents paid also, so there was no free lunch!
Posted in Childhood, Grandmawith no comments yet.
Leave a Reply