|
Great something grandmother was sent to an asylum from the workhouse because she was ‘troublesome’. Her Asylum notes say that she had dementia/senile decay; she was only in her late 60’s, had a goitre and had ‘fitted’ all her life. She was only there 3 days before she died from Pneumonia. Besides knocking over a Ward Maid, apparently she would say ‘I shall tell my husband!”. Reading the records had me in tears.
Only 10 years ago, there were still elderly ladies in care homes who were placed in institutions because they’d been single mothers. Our daughter had a Saturday job in Convent run home, primarily for adult Downs people. A few of the other residents had been transferred from a different Convent run home before it closed. This particular non-Downs lady had been institutionalised for about 50 years dating from before giving birth. The Diocese etc tried to find relatives only to discover they had all died. She’d been ‘put away’ and forgotten. :-0
|
|
That's sad, Det.
When I was still at school, I was the first person from that school to do voluntary work at the local home for special needs children. Initially, nothing altruistic, just a bloody good way to avoid RE, PE and double games, which extended to avoiding cookery and some other useless lesson that I didn't like!!
The children's 'playtime' in the late 1960's, was being put in a room with bare floors and nothing else to do but watch a TV positioned 20 ft up a wall!!
Oh - and me.
There were between 12 and 20 children in the room at a time, various disabilities, maybe a ball to play with, but the 'toys' were pretty useless for children with such diverse disabilities.
One very sad case was Jeannie. Blind, deaf, unable to speak and so physically disabled, she couldn't walk. The tragedy was, she was left on the floor, walked over and quite often tripped over and fallen on the other children - and (maybe because of this) hated being touched - one of the few senses she had.
I accidentally introduced music therapy to the unit. One Christmas, I got some school pals who fancied themselves as a 'band' to come and play them some carols.
As soon as the children heard the music, all they wanted to do was play the instruments.
We 'liberated' some old defunct instruments from the music department, did a bit of fundraising, and the lads started visiting regularly, giving the children instruments to 'bang about' on.
'Playtime' became more therapeutic as more people from the school, and elsewhere, were encouraged to go up there.
I carried on during my holidays from college, but stopped going when I left college, which coincided with twin Downs Syndrome boys, aged about a year being left there. This really upset me. I was upset for their parents, and also upset because I knew, being in an institution, they wouldn't realise their full potential.
I found out, years later, that one of my elder brothers went up there after me, mainly because he wanted to meet the head of the 'Friends'.
When I first went up there, I introduced myself to the head of the 'Friends'. We had the same (unusual) surname, and immediately worked out how we were related (he was the nephew of my dad's stepfather).
Many years later, his grand daughter went on to become a 'soap' actress.
My brother was as touched as I was by the lives these children led, and persuaded the firm he worked for (Esso - so quite a fund) to start donating and fundraising for the place. They even gave him paid time off to visit the children.
And all this was before we knew one of our g uncles (not the train de-railer - he was a g g uncle!) was probably on the autism spectrum - but despite being born in 1901, wasn't institutionalised as a child, and got employment as an adult!!
I also find it weird that I didn't know, until about 10 years ago, that my brother visited the place, and what he did for it, but when I left college, I moved away from the area, and we weren't in constant contact.
He was/is also one of those 'tough' bikers!! :-D :-D
|
|
One of my lot died (as stated on the death entry) of "paralysis of the insane" :-0
.... I had to google....... oh dear, oh dear........ he was sticking his "business" where he shouldn't have.
A gg uncle died in an asylum....... with no info regarding his wives on their records... he was a bigamist (two wives that we know of)...... finding him through the years was difficult..... we've often joked about him being an alien or a time traveller :-D
|
