The day after I posted the story of my paternal grandmother being a "Home Girl" Maureen offered me a book she had just read, "The Forgotten Home Child" by Genevieve Graham. Many thanks Maureen!
I have just finished it and have never experienced so many wet faces. In fictional form it chronicles the typical kinds of lives and treatment these children faced. Between 1869 and 1948 more than 120,000 children between the ages of three and eighteen were taken from England's streets, orphanages and homes and sent to British colonies (only about 2% were orphans, the rest were given by, or taken from, their families. It is my understanding that my grandmother's father was sent to the poor house and his daughters were sent away). Some children did benefit from the scheme but most, something like 75%, did not. They were treated like animals, when the real animals were the people who abused them.
Approximately 12% of we Canadians are descended from Home Children. Which means that about 9% of us have ancestors who were abused by this program. My brother, sister and I and some cousins and our families, are part of that 9%.
I can only imagine what my grandmother went through, in her early life in England (at that time the child mortality rate in the U.K. was 26%), and then from the age of 12, in Canada. Gut wrenching!
In a way, it was something like the Residential School program. Our colonial masters deciding what to do with a lot of inconvenient children. Both programs were advertised as being for the good of the children, but in reality both were just about money.
In the Residential School situation it was the money that the churches received for "retraining" the Indigenous children.
In the Home Child situation there were three monetary winners:
- The U.K. government who no longer had to provide for the children
- The Dr. Barnardo Homes who managed the program and got paid for shipping the children out
- The Canadian farmers and others who benefited from slave labour.
There were 90,000 losers.
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More medals for Canada. The women won Soccer gold! Wonderful!
And, congratulations to Canada's men in the 4 X 100 relay. Andre DeGrasse moved up two positions in his leg to achieve the bronze medal. He has appeared in six Olympic events and has won six medals! Incredible performances.
Tomorrow the Canadian women are appearing in their 4 X 100 final. Cross our fingers!
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With the temperature at 32C, high humidity and a tender hip (a muscle pull I assume, but getting better) I just worked an hour today. Watered the baskets and pumpkins, etc. and then cleaned up some trees that David had cut beside one of the ponds and cut the grass where they had been lying.
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Picked up fish and chips from Hutch's - Kathryn and Anna joined us for dinner and cards. A nice evening.
They're looking for ways to exercise so Mardi and I are giving them our bicycles (note to Sven: my cycling career is over but I'm still interested in tromping).
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Blue Jays won again - nine runs in the fifth inning! The Red Sox used a position player to pitch the ninth so they wouldn't wear out a regular pitcher. The guy pitched blooper balls across the plate at 36 mph - fun to watch (over 95 is more typical).
Life is good. Stay well.
