Let grief be a falling leaf

I am in sombre mood after seeing the film Philomena and realising that the order of nuns that raised me were also in the deeply unsavoury 'mother and baby home' business of the 1950s, etc. Babies were adopted, often sold overseas to Americans. The home in question was in Roscrea, Co Tipperary. The film is worth seeing, and not as shocking as the Magdalen Laundries, but let's just say the nuns do not come out well of it.

There were many unkind ones, it is perfectly true. I did suffer at the hands of one in particular, but fortunately not as an unmarried mother. However, I did visualise her death, over the Christmas holiday of 1974, and a few days later we received a letter to say she'd died suddenly, after missing an episode of her favourite programme, Kojak. They knew she must be ill, to miss it....

There was also a very kind one, Sr McLaughlin, at my first convent in Dublin, who was my confidante when my mother went on a long and fruitless trip to Mexico in 1973 to try and find my father, leaving five of us at home in Ireland. Not on our own, obviously...

This leaf brought to mind a song, not about adoption or nuns, but with a tinge of melancholy. Weather was shocking, though I caught these leaves between showers.

Part of the song /poem, by Patrick Kavanagh:

On Raglan Road

On Raglan road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
that her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way
and I said let grief be a falling leaf, at the dawning of the day.

UPDATE! It is confusing, but there were two orders with similar names, both operating in Roscrea in Co, Tipperary. The ones with the adoption homes were the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and the ones that educated me were the Society of the Sacred Heart. My headmistress had taught at Roscrea, and the name was often mentioned, hence the mistake.

Also found out through my research that the good nun I mentioned, Sr Helen McLaughlin, is alive and well. I had always imagined that she was very ancient and must be long dead by now! Grown ups do look very old when you are 9....