<This posting was promted by a post from ShirleyJones who wanted to hear from people who were in St. Teresa's at the same time she was in 1968 but might be of interest to other readers, which is one reason why i posted instead of sending a PM>
My name is Mary. I was at St Teresa's at the same time you were there Shirley. I was there for about seven months in all coming from a school for the blind run by nuns of the same order where i looked after 16 teenage blind or partially sighted girls. Some of these handicapped girls were older than i was at the time (i was 17 but started to work as a housemother when i was 16 i think) so i had to keep my age secret so as to get some respect and maintain authority). I had my baby in mid-August 1968 so I probably arrived at St. Teresas some time in April 1968 and left beginning of October, when I was forced to give her up, and sent out of the country. However, I was able to save enough money to get back to the UK and finally got her back. Best thing i ever did in my life.
My memories of St Teresa's are not particularly good, and certainly not as forgiving as yours. I wonder if we knew each other?I was in a bedroom with two Irish girls (just three of us). I was tall and the beds were for children so it was most uncomfortable. As i was in St. Teresa's for a long time and the food was not that nutritious and often inedible and I became very anaemic. So much so, I was interrogated at the hospital to see what we were eating and after that there were some changes made so i think the nuns must have got into trouble.
I had been told by Canon McKew who sent me there that i could work with the children who were in the nursery, and continue the studies i was doing in residential child care while in St Teresa's but was forced to work in the dining room when i got there. I worked for Sister Kieren.
My parents said that it was my choice and they would stand by me whatever I wanted to do, but when i told them i wanted to keep my daughter (there had never been any doubt in my mind about that) my mum said she hoped God would guide me to do the right thing and I realized that they were not going to keep their word. My Dad refused to look at my daughter when they visited me at the hospital, even though I begged him to see how sweet she was. Canon McHugh banged on the table and told me she would be better in an orphanage all her life than with me.
Unlike you i didn't find the nuns that kind or caring, though there was one young nun who was nice. I remember being made to stay in the home when my Mum came to visit me instead of going out with her in order to look after someone else's kid. I thought it very unfair as my Mum was coming on her own and had no car and wanted me to meet her by the station. I didn't see my parents all that often because of the distance and the fact they had two young children at the time. I made a scene and eventually was allowed to go out and meet her. Worse that that, I had to work nights after i came out of the hospital and they would forbid me to look after my daughter in the daytime, even going as far as locking me in a room, so i wouldnt be so tired at night. When i reported a girl who, unlike me didn't want to keep her child, who was abusing her at feeding times, they refused to come and look and said it was not their policy to interfere and the child would soon be adopted (i remember saying yes, if she survives) The abuse was as bad as that.
I didn't think some of the nuns had a vocation as most of them were Irish and would have entered the convent in a time when one girl from each family was sent to a convent and one boy to the priesthood. I didn't find some of them very knowledgeable as i didn't find some of the nuns who taught me at school or worked at the school for the blind. Iwas appalled at their attitude to things like the food we ate. One incident that sticks in my mind is that the bread we were served up was going moldy but they wouldn't throw it out( and the uneaten loves were stockpiled in the kitchen and getting stale and moldy too) and they didn't want to alter the order so there were large numbers of loaves going moldy and no chance of us getting edible bread. One of the girls who worked in the dining room with me threw the moldy bread away and Sister Kieren took it out of the bin and put it back on the table saying that the nuns had taken a vow of poverty.
I was at St Teresa's from 1st May 1968 till mid July. I kept my son, born 15th June, but have never forgotten seeing those poor girls weeping when they gave their babies up for adoption. Many of them were Irish, often returning afterwards to marry the father of their child, their families wanting to preserve the outward show of Catholic respectability.
The nuns were kind and caring, but trapped in the system.
I remember a young nun, Sister Mark, I think she wasl called.
I get tearful remembering that time. It would be great to hear from anyone
who was at St Teresa's then.
