I was sad when it was visiting day
as I never received any visitors so I must be honest with you I did feel at times very lonely and jealous of the other girls
who did get visitors it was too far for my beautiful dad to visit unlike Cardonald Glasgow he was there always most visiting
Sunday's.
I left school at fifteen with no qualifications
and during my school days I was always either third bottom or fourth bottom in class I found it very difficult to learn and
progress in school.
When I left school at fifteen I transferred
to a convent in Liverpool run by a different set of nuns they were not The Poor Sisters Of Nazareth I can not remember what
they were called.
When I arrived at the Liverpool convent
I was very quiet and kept myself to myself the nuns there worked very very hard with me over a long period of time to
win my trust and they never ever lost their patience or temper with me I was very difficult at times and I am sure drove them
to distraction but not once did they raise their voices or their hands or anything else to me. I admired these nuns deep down
and how they raised money to look after us they did not go begging as did the Nazareth House nuns. They took in laundry from
the ships and we used to work in the laundries and we earned our pocket money which I can remember was eighteen shillings
a week. That is roughly eighty pence in today's money. We had to buy out of that tights/stockings toothpaste and toiletries
also we saved money every week out of our pocket money. We were allowed to go out to the pictures or town on a Saturday that
was something that was never allowed at Nazareth House going to the pictures and we were given quite a bit of freedom. I was
very very happy in this home due to the fact that I was not shown violence toward me but care and understanding and I thank
those nuns for that. I even learned to smile :) again at 15 can you imagine that? as I had nothing to smile about at Nazareth
House did I?. I came out of the Liverpool home and I moved around the country a lot finding work living in as I found it very
difficult to settle in one place for very long I think you call it itchy feet and also in those days you could walk out of
one job and straight into another one unlike today. I had a variety of jobs but I trained to be a Silver service waitress
and mainly worked in hotels and I also lived in. I moved around the country a lot but always ended going back to London where
my sister stayed were I knew a warm welcome always awaited me when I returned there. I went out with one or two lads but nothing
serious then I met a lad who worked in the same hotel as I he was called Peter and he also lived in so we developed a relationship
and because he was nice to me then I thought I was in love oh! how gullible I was and very naive. We went out a few times
on dates and we also socialised when we were of duty. We became engaged and that is when things changed he became violent
and very possessive and if I so much as spoke to another male as far as he was concerned I was having an affair with them.
This was so ridiculous as when I was off duty so was he so how I was supposed to have the time to see these other males was
beyond me but suffice it to say he was a very jealous, controlling and very abusive person. He asked me to prove my love to
him by giving up my room at the hotel and move into his. I did this but what a big huge mistake that was but without going
into detail I eventually ended up in hospital and I never went back. I never even went to collect my weeks wages that I was
owed but that was a small price to pay for my freedom even though I could have done with my wages as I was on the run yet
again.
