My comforting memory is HollyGrove Home for Children in 1956. Miss Margaret Ingram was the Head Mistress at that time. She was a sweet little grayed haired lady from Ireland who loves us all as though we were her own children. All I have to do is see the name HollyGrove or hear the name Ingram or the word Orphanage and I feel good, warm, and happy inside. It is part of my mental first-aide kit. Other kids who were there remember it as being a horrible place, but I never saw that or felt that. I learned how to play baseball, learned how to swim, went to a girl scout camp in the mountains, went to the beach and got into a rowboat. Even though I couldn't run, I can still hit the ball hard. Even though I was scared to death of water, there we learned to dance in the water. While at the girl scout camp I saw a mountain and looked down for the first time. The stars at night up there were just like those in the sky when I lived out back at my father's home. I had been told my mother was buried at sea, so seeing an ocean made me realize how small I am and how large mother's area is. (A child's point of view on that one.)
Even though I was only there for a year, it was the happiest time in my entire childhood. I must have been 12 when I left there. I had my second Christmas while I was there. A real tree that went to the ceiling, with lots of colored lights and birds and presents around it. In the dinning room we all stood behind our chairs and said a prayer over the safety of children around the world. I really liked that. I got to sleep in a room with 3 other girls, and in a cottage with 16 other girls. I got to play the piano. Oh my goodness, I could go on and on and on over HollyGrove. Did I tell you that Miss Ingram gave me my first real clean hug? Yup. It was great. Made me all warm and tingly in a good way. She touched my head and I never got hit by and adult while I was there.
At one of the reunions, one of my former room-mates passed me a note before she left to say she was sorry for picking on me. But I don't remember anything bad about her or anyone else there. Compared to my previous life, that was heaven.
safenow