Thursday, 17 April 2014

The Foundling Child



How does it feel to find yourself abandoned by the mother who gave birth to you, at just three months old?

No Mother No Home has just been released as a book to tell the true story of one child`s painful experiences as she had to grow up within the gates and walls of an institution. She was given away and abandoned at the Foundling Hospital, in the early part of the twentieth century. 
She, along with all the other children was made to feel it was her sin to be born illegitimately and placed by her `proper` mother into the Foundling Hospital system.
`The air was filled with dark noises of distress and my first shrieking despair was quickly turning to numb bewilderment. As soon as I found myself, along with many other children, being led away by strange adults I knew deep down that I didn`t want to go to wherever it was they were taking me.
Every other boy and girl screamed, called out for `mummy` or was shocked into numb silence as somebody big and strong grasped me by the arms and began chopping off all my hair!
The indignity of being treated like a rag doll with no will of my own only grew worse, nobody heard, nobody cared for me as their own child. I had made the mistake of being born illegitimately, in the nineteen twenties, my mother could no longer care for me and the Foundling Hospital would be my only home. `
No Mother No Home creates the whole feel of the Foundling Hospital experience for other children too.
The Foundling Hospital was formed in 1739, by Thomas Coram, as one of England`s first children`s charities to bring a strict regime, an education, a roof and food to all those children abandoned by their mothers because they were born out of wedlock. This heartrending account shows how it felt for the children who were made to feel guilty because there was no father around and their mother had to give them away. But there was one other alternative for the unwed mother in the early twentieth century, and this book also looks at adoption.

No Mother No Home is currently available through my website: www.twinlightbooks.co.uk

No comments:

Post a Comment