Talking Orphans

Suppose you had some terrible experiences as a child, so terrible that as an adult, you opted to forget (whether consciously or unconsciously) about them?

That’s what happened to my mother, to whom my book (Eddie and the Vegetarian Vampire) is dedicated.  She was abandoned as an infant by her mother in the early 1930s during the depths of the Great Depression, like thousands of others during those years of emotional and economic desperation. She spent her childhood in state-sponsored private homes. In high school, the principal and his kindly wife took pity on the awkward, skinny girl and took her in as a foster child, where she spent the happiest years (probably the only happy ones) of her childhood.

My mother could never recall where she lived before age 10. She must have spent those years in foster homes or, like the title character Eddie in my novel, an orphanage. When pressed for details, my mom would frown, shake her head, a far-away look on her face, and mutter, “Nothing comes to mind.” My sister and I always felt that something came to mind, most likely an unpleasant, best-forgotten something.

When my mom passed away, my sister found among her possessions a series of notes written by various social workers, covering my mom’s life from age 10 onward. To the outsider, the notes might seem mundane. To my sister and me, they made fascinating reading. Entries like “J has a rather nice manner though sulky at times,” and “Keeps herself neat and wants people to like her,” helped us to understand our mother’s moods, challenges and life choices.

We know that not having a stable family upbringing can lead to all kinds of difficulties in life. My novel tries to address some of those challenges in a light-hearted way. What intrigues me as much as the challenges is the resilience that some kids (but not all) manage to find. My mother was one such child. In adulthood, she succeeded at raising three children and rose to a management position in the telephone company, where she worked her whole life.

My character Eddie manages to maintain an optimistic outlook on life as well, though he has to learn that happy and unhappy endings live side-by-side. Besides my mother one of the stories of real-life orphans that inspired my novel was that of Edward Rohs. Rohs was abandoned by his unmarried mother in 1946. He spent his 18 years of childhood in a New York City Catholic orphanage. Rohs was ineligible for adoption because his biological parents never signed the relevant permission papers. Although his mother eventually married Rohs’ dad, they never returned to collect their son. Rohs eventually found success in life as a lawyer, though it took him many years to come to terms with his background, which continues to shape him in many ways. Readers interested in Rohs’ moving story can read more at Raised by the Church: Growing Up in New York City’s Catholic Orphanages. 2012, Fordham University Press, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13wzxsn