Hello my name is Maria :)

&

THIS IS MY STORY OF MY CHILDHOOD SPENT IN CARE

I extend a very warm welcome to you all to Maria's website and I hope you enjoy your visit and will come back again soon also to pass the word along to your friends to drop by for a visit:-) My very best wishes to you and your families in your life whatever you wish for YOU

HUGS & SMILES:)

PEACE & LOVE

love

Maria:)

x 

I decided to break my silence of 45 years after the first case against the Catholic Church and Nazareth House came to court Sister Alphonso=Marie Docherty was found guilty of child abuse but the sentence she received was one of admonishment much to the disgust and dismay of all of us former children who were abused while in these Nazareth House homes to me personally JUSTICE was not done and to the very many other former children I have spoken to since. To date we have not had any apology from either the  Catholic Church or Nazareth House and to me this is totally
UNACCEPTABLE WE DESERVE AN APOLOGY....

SO I ASK PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO SIGN MY
PETITION/GUESTBOOK  AFTER READING MY STORY TO HELP ME IN TRYING TO ACHIEVE THIS APOLOGY I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS WILL WORK BUT I HAVE TO TRY

THANK YOU ALL

Maria:)
(((((((((HUGS x ))))))x

I was born on the 19th February 1952, my older sister was born on the 15th July 1948. My father was Scottish and my mother who I have never met was English. My mum & dad split up when I was still a baby of two years of age. I do not know the details or the reasons behind the split of why but my wonderful dad kept us but he worked a three shift system and paid a lady to look after us. I have been told that the lady did not look after us properly and my big sister had malnutrition & scabies so social services became involved the result being we ended up in the care system of Nazareth House, Convent Cardonald, Glasgow.

My sister recalls when we arrived there two nuns approaching, they took me away she was bewildered, scared, and confused she did not know were they were taking me to. She was screaming as she had been like a mother to me since the day I was born we had not been apart she looked after me, she tells me making curls in my hair etc :)anyway I was taken to the nursery and we did not see each other again until I was 5 years old. I have no bad recollections of the nursery so I assume I was treated alright in the nursery but when I was 5, I was taken to the bigger group and my big sister and I were reunited we were delighted to be back together again. My sister & I were like
chalk & cheese different personalities. I was the one always in trouble and she was the good one. I was always being caned for something or other but she very rarely was caned. The regime at Nazareth House was awful and brutal...beatings, canings, food forced down you. If you did not eat it at tea time it was there for breakfast & so on. I remember hating liver but it was forced down me and when I was sick I was made to clean my sick up while still
heaving. I also had an ear infection that went untreated for years, it was a horrible Green although at the beginning it was Yellow. I ended up with a mastoid. I was one of the many girls who wet the bed and often I was made to stand outside the dormitory with the wet sheet on my head. Often
falling asleep and the nuns hitting me to wake me up. I had to stand on very small Red cold tiles till sister N******** told me I could go to bed. No wonder I often fell asleep in class so consequently did not learn a lot, although school was my happiest time. It meant you were out of that godforsaken place for a few hours. We also had a regime that we had to examine other girls underwear how undignified this was to me personally. What I was supposed to be looking for I did not understand or have a clue but if there was a stain of anything on your pants bearing in mind some of us girls had our periods you were punished with a beating. They used to have what was termed visiting Sunday once a month & my wonderful Dad came to see us whenever he could most of the time. If he brought us sweets or gave us money it was confiscated we never did get them back unless it was xmas then we got sweets. As soon as visiting was over so a lot of us hid the money down our socks so that we could keep it. I remember my dad gave us a 10/-shilling note which is equivalent to about 50 pence in today's money but was a lot of money in those days & my sister was petrified because some money went missing & she was scared in case they found this 10/- shilling note down her sock. I remember we were forced to drink milk that had gone lumpy...it was horrible. When sister N******** was mad with you and some of the other nuns they thought nothing of nipping you so hard that we bruised, dragging us by the hair up or down the stairs hitting you etc. It was a nightmare for very many of us. In retrospect I think I was always in trouble because I did what I did for attention. My sister once had the cane & her hand was bruised and numb and she could not move it for about three weeks so that will show you the level of force that was used with the cane.

It was visiting Sunday and my darling Dad came to visit us and my sister's hand was still bruised and numb she still could barley move it my Dad asked her what was wrong with her hand but my sister was to scared to tell him and kept changing the subject anyway eventually my wonderful Dad coaxed it from her and he was appalled and livid so he went and spoke to the nun's but my sister was petrified in case she was in big trouble for telling him but they let that one go my Dad was brilliant.

We learned not to tell anyone what was happening because you knew if you did you got another hiding. That was the regime of fear in those homes & those nuns. The other punishment for wetting
the bed was a cold bath and I mean cold freezing it was with DDT added which is a sort of disinfectant now a banned substance I believe.

I was always being told I had the devil in me & when they came round with the holy water at night a lot of it was shaken over me saying they would knock the devil out of me once & for all one way or another. The only words I ever heard while growing up in these Godforsaken homes constantly was "I never had any good in me I would never do anything that was ever any good" "I would never amount to anything" can you imagine a young child being told this on such a regular basis what effect it has on that young child devastation rejection & dejection.

We were never shown any affection. Never even a hug or a kiss or anything & always being told no one wanted us that was why we were there and how grateful we should be. I remember asking the nuns about my mum I was about seven at that time but was told she did not want us, that is why we were there how cruel those words were to me they shattered my world even more. My sister & I used to plead with anyone who came round looking to adopt...to take us & be our new mummy & daddy. It was because we were desperate to get out. The food we used to hide down the back of the
radiators or up our sleeves trying desperately not to get caught it was appalling. At night-time night after night you would cry yourself to sleep and believe me you were not the only one trying hard not to let the nuns hear you, otherwise you knew you would be given something else to cry for. My
sister & I would pray desperately that someone would come & take us away from there but it was not to be. When my sister was fifteen we went to live with dad but I went wild because of all the freedom we had. I ended up being made a ward of court & was sent to Nazareth House in Aberdeen were Sister Alphonso was...she was brutal and  evil. I ran away when I was 11 years old not long after going there because I realised it was the same regime all over again. There was 11 of us girls and there was boys that ran away as well how many in all I don't really know, most were caught within 2-3 days but myself another girl stayed on the run for 3 weeks living off the fields vegetables & stuff. We broke into St. Mungo's and slept there at night we hitched a lift after running from the convent a lift in a lorry to Glasgow which was a long way were I was sexually assaulted but at least I had got away.