The illegitimate child carried the STAIN of her/his parents 'sins': a purplish birthmark — the label of bastard. In many jurisdictions, illegitimate children's birth certificates were of a different colour. 1

GONE TO AN AUNT'S

My birthmother carried the secret of my birth — like a stain — for many years. Just like I would evaluate what to divulge in POLITE CONVERSATION, so she had to juggle with the question, “How many children do you have?” Should she mention the first child? Say three children, two daughters?

I see the pride in her voice now, when she presents me to friends and family; how she talks of her three children. She tells me that if she had found herself pregnant today, she could have kept me.

CATCHING A NIGHTRAIN TO MONTREAL

To adopt anonymity, many women were required to use different names in the maternity homes. Women who spent months together did not know each other's real names — to PROTECT their families' honour, to shield them from their shameful conditions. Last names, which could easily be traced back to their family were never used. Some women were allowed to pick their new name, others were atttributed names like 'Rose', 'Humiliane' or 'Freucteuse', assigned in alphabetical order until the list was exhausted and the process started over. If there was more than one woman with the same proper name they would then be numbered. [ie. Carole 1, Carole 2, Carole 3] 2

TRYING A NEW SCHOOL

My birthmother tells me of her stay in the hospital. She was alone, crying and afraid and the nurses ignored her. They would not give her pain killers.

Anne Petrie, in her book GONE TO AN AUNT'S, describes the treatment of an unwed woman in a Scarborough, Ontario hospital in 1957. At the foot of her bed was a sign reading: “Do not talk to this patient.” 3

"I was a doctor at the Grace Hospital in 1967 in Vancouver, and when we used to come to examine the ‘unwed mothers,’ the nurse would pull a short half-curtain across her - right across her belly so you never saw her face. Amazing to think of now, but that was just the way it was back then." - Dr. S., Calgary, 1997 4

VISITING A RELATIVE TO HELP OUT

The Misericordia hospitals in Edmonton and in Montreal were 'teaching hospitals' and unwed mothers proved to be perfect guinea pigs: some women claim they received inferior treatment because of their unmarried status. 5

SICK WITH MONONUCLEOSIS

1 HISTORY, VALUES, AND PLACEMENT POLICY ISSUES IN ADOPTION, Elizabeth S. Cole and Kathryn S. Donley in Psychology of Adoption, Edited by David. M. Brodzinky & Marshall D. Schechter, Oxford University Press: New York, 1990 (p.285)

2 GONE TO AN AUNT'S - REMEMBERING CANADA'S HOMES FOR UNWED MOTHERS, Anne Petrie, McClelland & Stewart Inc., Toronto, Ontario, 1998 (p.66 )

3 Ibid (p. 187)

4 Id. (p. 181)

5 Id. ((pp. 188, 192)

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