WDC RACH'S READING CLUB 2024

The Forgotten Home Child

         The Forgotten Home Child Author: Genevieve Graham

Published 2020

         

         This is a poignant tale about a woman's secret, a secret that shames her and stuns her family.

         Winny is a senior looking back at her past, a past she has hidden from her family. She has outlived her husband and their only child, a daughter. She is survived by and lives with her adult granddaughter and her great-grandson. They are curious about a small, battered, wooden trunk that Winny has never revealed to them.

In reluctant spurts Winny opens up. She reveals that she came from Ireland, or at least was born there before her poor family moved to England. Under dire circumstances Winny ended up living on the streets and a group of homeless children adopted her.

         Eventually the children were rounded up and sent to reside in a children's home where they rejoiced they were together and their strong bond could continue. At the home they learned new skills and appreciated having a warm bed, a roof over their heads, and no need to scrounge or steal food.

          A philanthropist hatched a plan to give these street urchins a fresh start far from England. Each child constructed their own travel trunk which was loaded onto a ship with its young owner and sent to Canada. The children had no idea what to expect other than they were told a Canadian family would take them in and provide for them in exchange for labour. They would also be given an education.

         Arriving in their foreign destination the children were lined up and inspected by prospective people. Many, like Winny, had never lived let alone worked on a farm. They were city kids.

         They were separated from their own makeshift family and sequestered in remote farming areas. Winny endured harsh living conditions in strange brutal weather, barely given much to eat and forced to toil almost non-stop.

         The deep shame she bears stems from her humble beginnings and her welcome to Canada. She has always felt unwanted and awkward.

         Despite her rough start, Winny has a dream to become a nurse. Against the odds she becomes one. She also creates her own family when she's reunited with 'her' Jack who has also endured his own hell relocating to Canada and serving in WWII.

         Winny shares her story about separation, isolation, and abject cruelty replaced by love. This is a story about resilience and self-forgiveness.