Author Topic: Nazareth House Prestwich memories  (Read 31423 times)

celeste

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #15 on: 18:16:22, 17/04/11 »
Only recent victims of abuse in care homes have received compensation, any chance of 'no win, no fee' deals for NH victims - at £400 per week they could well afford it >:(
 
 
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Greengate Girl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #16 on: 18:38:57, 17/04/11 »
 :( Cupcake, I agree there are good and bad in every walk of life, but as well as reading
horror stories, I have spoken to someone of my own age who had tales to tell about
nuns.
Thanks for the authors name Cheethamgirl, I will look for that book.xx
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

Greengate Girl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #17 on: 18:40:07, 17/04/11 »
Only recent victims of abuse in care homes have received compensation, any chance of 'no win, no fee' deals for NH victims - at £400 per week they could well afford it >:(
Hope something can be done for them Celeste.
I was as pure as the driven snow, till I drifted. Mae West.

cheethamgirl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #18 on: 19:29:36, 17/04/11 »
Anyone see the recent tv prog with Neil Morrisey about his, and others' experiences of being children in care?  Another sad tale. 
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

UKkat

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #19 on: 23:41:03, 22/07/11 »
 
 
 
Hi Cheetamgirl.
Ok i have just learnt that my mother and uncle were placed in NH around 1950. I know my mum is older than her brother and that she was hit on the hands for being left handed so i am wondering if the true story is this sibling story i have read about where she looks after her brother. Do u know their names or anything? or what they looked like? my family in NH were small in height. I am hoping this is not my mum and uncle because its too sad. I know my mum is too proud to talk about it and wonder if this is why she bnever discussed her childhood.  :o
 
 
 
 
 
 
I attended St Clare's primary school in Blackley from about 1959 until 1964 and I was very happy there but I have some memories which haunt me still.  A group of children arrived to join the school one day and at playtime they all stood together in a group, isolated from the other children.  I remember one blonde hared girl in particular, who would stand all playtime holding onto her younger brother.  I approached her and tried to make friends. 


She told me the group came from Nazareth House, a local orphanage.  The possibility of kids not being in the care of their parents was a new concept to the seven year old me, and I asked her lots of questions, which she was at first reluctant to answer.  She told me the NH kids had been told by the nuns not to play with or speak to the other children at the school because the NH children were 'bad'.  She didn't seem bad to me and I  wanted her to be my friend so I asked her why they thought they were bad, and she replied that the nuns had told them they were so bad that their parents had given them up. 


I asked my parents if we couldn't have some of the NH kids come and live with us, and they said they could barely afford to support me, let alone anyone else's kids, but they too thought the kids were put in the home because they were somehow 'damaged or difficult'.


Over the next few weeks, the girl became easier talking to me and I asked her why her little brother had bruises on his knees and fingers.  She told me that, during the night, the little chap cried out for his mummy and a nun would come around with a bone-handled table knife and hit him on the knuckles and knees with it to make him stop.  The little fellah never spoke to me and looked vacant and disturbed all the time, but his big sis just held on to him every playtime and never left his side until they had to return to their different classes. Some of the older NH kids referred to the place as 'Nazi House', but I hadn't then heard of the Nazis.


Eight years later, I went to visit my Gran in Nazareth House in West London, where my aunt had placed her as Gran was getting a bit wobbly, and I saw the same bruises.  Given that she was confined to an iron, high sided cot, I asked a nun how she had got the bruises and was told that the old ladies often cried out in the night for their daughters or husbands and they sometimes banged their knees or knuckles on the sides of the cots.  My Gran's bruises were chiefly on the soft parts of her fingers tho, not on the knuckles.  As she was totally sound in her mind, I asked Gran what had happened and she told me a nun would hit her with the handle of a table knife when she cried.  Her description of what had happened to her so precisely matched what the little girl at my school had said, that I knew it to be true.


I still have a letter my Gran wrote, just before she died in NH, in which she thanks my Mum for the lovely parcel she sent with new cardigans and   "all that chocolate", and she adds that the nuns took all the chocolate.  She asks my mum to come and take her home.  Every time I read that letter, it makes me cry.  But I often think of her and also of the little girl and boy, standing forlorn and miserable, in the corner of the playground, saying "you're not supposed to speak to us, as we're Nazareth House kids", and it breaks my heart.


I would love to hear from any of the NH kids, especially any who went to St Clare's, as I would like to know if they had happy lives.  At least I would like them to know that at least one person on this earth has hardly let a day go by without thinking about them and feeling their pain and isolation.  I'd like that little girl to know that I asked my teacher if she and her brother might come to my house to play at the weekends but the teacher said that was not allowed.  I was only seven, but I felt I had let them down somehow.   :(

cheethamgirl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #20 on: 08:41:00, 23/07/11 »
Hello UKkat,  I am very sorry to hear your mum and uncle were in NH.  I couldn't say if they were the pair I remember though.  The children I remember were slightly built tho I thought the girl was around my age, so perhaps born around 1953.  Maybe your Mum was a little older than that.  Most of the NH kids seemed shorter than us, and I'm average height now.  Beating left-handed children on their left hands was pretty widespread before the 1950s, tho it persisted in Irelandlong after this, from what my Mayo mother told me, and many nuns came from Ireland, so that may well have happened to your mum.  Kids in orphanages were also beaten for bed wetting, and yet that is often as  sign of distress displayed by children who are taken from their parents. Is your mum still with us?  I hope she had a happy adult life.  I have subsequently met several children who were in NH and none was happy there.  I think the main problems, as if being separated from their families were not enough, were physical abuse and being constantly told they were 'bad' or unwanted kids. For some reason, none of them want to talk about it.  Was that all your mum would say about the place?  If she were unhappy, at least she probably experienced one happy childhood - yours.
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

UKkat

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #21 on: 12:02:34, 23/07/11 »
Hi Cheethamgirl.
Thank you for replying to my message with regards to my mother and Uncle. Firstly, my mother was born in 1941 and my uncle a little after that, sadly my uncle died in 2006- great man indeed. My mother is still alive.... She turns 70 in a few weeks and i am doing her a surprise paty.
On the NH, she doesnt know that i know about the care situation. I found out by chance because i was seeing my mums cousin who came out with it. I am doing the family tree and i thought it seemed odd that my mum never mentioned her parents at all. Her father died, but her mother left them after he died thats how she ended up in care. My cousin stated that they went on weekends to see them in care as the older two siblings left the family home to be with this cousin as they were old enough..... My mum doesnt know i know. Everything with her childhood is one huge secret or she just witholds it all because it is that bad.
I find it very sad that they were in care and wonder why she hasnt said anything but i am not going to say anything as i dont want to intrude at all.  :(
I have no idea how to reply to the message u send to me.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Since posting this I googled NH and saw that there have in fact been 500+ former residents (mainly of the orphanage side) of NH institutions nationwide and in Ireland, who have come forward to allege mental, physical and sexual abuse, and so NH has joined the frighteningly large number of similar institutions who have been the subject of litigation.


I imagine therefore that many who have recollections of suffering in that institution may not wish to comment here, or may be constrained for legal reasons.  My thoughts are with you.  May you now go forward in your lives, in the knowledge that you are survivors and therefore are very special people.   What does not kill you can only make you strong.   

cheethamgirl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #22 on: 13:37:53, 23/07/11 »
Hi UKkat,
 
I can see your post, if that is the answer you mean.  Two things occur to me, either your mum didn't have too bad a time at NH, or possibly she is one of those people who prefers to forget unpleasant times.  I don't think it can have been your mum whom I saw at St Clare's in Blackley (did she ever mention going to that school?) as she would have been 12 years older than me. I have the impression that the NH kids were not with us for that long.  Perhaps it did not work out having them in main stream schools? Maybe they set up lessons for them within NH?  It is just something I have never forgotten, and I am dismayed not to find anyone on the net saying how happy there were at NH establishments.  Anyway, I hope your mother enjoys her birthday party.  I think you are right to let sleeping dogs lie regarding her past and just make sure she knows that, nowadays at least, she is loved, respected and valued.  If you haven't already got her a special birthday card, why not have a look at gettingpersonal.com?  They have a lovely range of cards and will print her name on the front and any message you like inside.  Not expensive either. It would be the sort of card she would want to keep.  Have a great day on her birthday.
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

MARY 7

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #23 on: 22:19:21, 28/10/11 »
margret humphreys?that story about all the kids who wre sent to australia/canada.dvd. out now called  sunshine and oranges. also did you see that film the leaving of liverpool.the nuns were all in on that to telling the kids you mum is dead and these nice familys want to take care of you  and it goes to show nuns are liars to as abuse kids. thank god them days sre over.
 

Cupcake

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #24 on: 17:33:56, 29/10/11 »
Have you seen the hoohah in Spain? It's emerging that priests and nuns identified "unsuitable" parents  - sometimes simply because they were poor - and then doctors would tell them their child had died at birth, whilst the newborn was taken and given by the Church adoption agencies to "suitable" parents.  All this happened under Franco, so they are refusing to dig it all up again, but estimates say something over 100,000 children were stolen.  One lot of charmers kept a dead baby in a freezer to show to the parents being robbed. 
 
What is it about religion that attracts these vicious nutters?  I know lots of lovely priests and nuns, honestly, I do.  But every time there's a horror story like this, it seems the Vatican has a hand in it somewhere....   
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cheethamgirl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #25 on: 08:36:19, 30/10/11 »
I have no doubt that the numbers of people abused, in one way or another, by nuns and priests is much greater than we'll ever know, as many do not want to speak of their experiences.  I didn't see those films, but I'll keep an eye out for them.  I recently took a lovely boat trip from San Francisco across to Sausalito and found myself sitting next to a woman whose appearance attracted my attention.  She wore mismatched and old fashiioned clothes which must have come from a charity shop, had dreadfully neglected teeth, badly cut hair and wore no make up.  We got chatting and I noticed she had an Irish accent.  She said she was from Westport, and I immediately thought to ask her if she were a nun.  She looked surprised at the question and said she had 'escaped' from years of confinement with the nuns.  She was taking the first holiday she had ever had in her life. I'd have readily listened to her story, but she did not want to speak further about herself.  She looked all the time at my hair and clothes, as if taking in every detail of my 'style'.  I wanted to offer to buy her lunch, but I got the impression it might have offended her. She said she wanted to climb up a hill to where huge Redwood trees grew, and be alone with her thoughts.  Maybe it's just me, but so often I briefly meet other souls who leave me wondering about them and wanting to know their story.
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

Ann

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #26 on: 13:56:45, 09/11/11 »
I have read what you've written Cheetham Girl and it surprised me as I never knew it was an orphanage, thought it was for sick and elderly members of the clergy. I did go a few years ago to the summer fair which Daniel O'Donnell opened and apparently they raised a good deal of money on that day.
Thanks for writing the story, can't begin to imagine what those poor children suffered in those days.
 

St Chads

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #27 on: 09:26:22, 11/11/11 »
I remember the NH girls at St Chads,they were a nice group of girls .Bridgette Ratigan ,Shelia  Ladigee, and a girl named Reed ...i can't remember her christian name .
" Life calls the tune , we dance ".

JOHN GALSWORTHY,

cheethamgirl

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #28 on: 08:02:06, 12/11/11 »
I don't recall being aware that we had NH children at St Chad's.  My first recollection of them was when I moved to St Clare's and they appeared there one term.  Did those girls indicate whether they were happy at NH?  I hope they were, tho I haven't heard any 'happy' stories from there.  I recall going to give a Christmas concert at NH, and both the NH children and the old folks were there watching us. The kids didn't look happy or excited and nor did they join in with the carols.     
Author:  'Odd Man Out - A Motiveless Murder?' & 'The Cheetham Hill Murder'

St Chads

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Re: Nazareth House Prestwich memories
« Reply #29 on: 11:33:28, 12/11/11 »
I don't recall being aware that we had NH children at St Chad's.  My first recollection of them was when I moved to St Clare's and they appeared there one term.  Did those girls indicate whether they were happy at NH?  I hope they were, tho I haven't heard any 'happy' stories from there.  I recall going to give a Christmas concert at NH, and both the NH children and the old folks were there watching us. The kids didn't look happy or excited and nor did they join in with the carols.   
The didn't seem too unhappy to me but then maybe i was too wrapped up in my own life to pay any attention ...
" Life calls the tune , we dance ".

JOHN GALSWORTHY,