Hi, I came across this post and felt I had to contribute. I was born at the Assisi Home in November 1958, then moved to the nursery in Sheringham, Norfolk where I remained with my birth mother for about 8 months. From there I was returned to the Crusade of Rescue in Ladbroke Grove and fostered from the age of 11 months and subsequently adopted at the age of 4. What I was shocked to learn from your posts was that the nursery in Sheringham was basically a waiting room for babies to be adopted! I had always assumed that the 'kind' nuns had found my mother a job to help her try and keep me. That clearly wasn't the case. To add a twist to the story, when I was 7 years of age, my (adoptive) sister at the age of 17, joined the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (the same order of nuns that ran Assisi). She remained a num with that order until she died in 2009. Strange coincidence! The nun who signed my birth records was Sister Bernadine. By the time I was old enough to know anything about my beginnings, she had died. I recently read the Baby Laundry for Unmarried Mothers by Angela Patrick which has stirred everything up again. I met my birth mother in 1987, saw her three times and didn't really understand what she must have gone through. Now she has died and now that I am older, I wish I could have had more understanding of her situation. I am a family law solicitor and recently dealt with a complicated and contested adoption. My approach, I suspect, must be affected by my history!
