Nazareth House Nuns

CHEWING GUM.

 Whenever we got chewing gum we would share it. We would all have a turn of chewing the same piece of gum for hours on end. We would put the chewing gum on our bedpost at night and the next day when I took it off, The paint would come off with the chewing gum. I would take the paint off it and then start to chew the gum again and then we would start to share it again.

 SUGAR

 Every so often I would go to the senior girls room for one purpose only and that was for some sugar. I would take two teaspoons of sugar and let it melt on my tongue. When it had all melted. I would, as slow as I could swallow all the warm sugary liquid. I did this because it made me feel warm all over for a couple of minutes. I would forget that I was cold for a while. I would hate to think what would have happened to me if I got caught taking that sugar.

 In the dining room there were long tables and five to ten girls sat at each one. The table I sat at, some of the older girls fight with knives and eat my food.

I am glad that they did not like milk, for if they did, I would not have anything to eat. We had bread and dripping everyday, the fat was cold and hard. It stayed in my mouth for ages afterwards.

Ifwe didn't eat this, we wouldn't have anything else to eat.

 KNITTING.

 I could knit from the age of seven years, it was hard at first with my two rusty nails. When I was older I knitted up a jumper in rib, with every colour of the rainbow and more. The nuns took it off me and gave it to one of the other girls. I see it on her and don't have any hard words with her.

It is her's now and she looks good in it.

 "What can I do so it won't be taken off me?" So I took up embroidery. I was good at it and I liked it.

The nuns took it away when I had finished it, but I did not mind. Because I knew that nothing that I did for myself was mine to keep. It was lent to me, even if I paid for it.

APPLES.

We were lucky if we ever saw an apple. If we did I would eat mine very fast so no one would take it off me. Or I would eat it as slow as I could so it would last a long time. I did not like to eat the core so the girls would sit around me, waiting for me to finish it, as they would eat the whole apple, core and all. Who ever I gave my core to, would follow me around everywhere.

I never once saw or ate an orange or banana, at St. Joseph's or Nazareth house.

   KlCTHEN WORK.

This was when I worked ID the kitchen when I was 12 to 15 school hours and then 15 to 19years old full time. Sister Simeon hit me until I left when I was 19years old.

I preserved fruit in the summer time from early morning to late at night with no time off, this was very hard hot work, a lady would come to Nazareth House to help me. Apples, Peaches, Pears, Apricots, Quinces, Nectarines, and Plums, I also made the jams and the one I made up was banana and rhubarb, I never ate the fruit I preserved it was for the nuns, old ladies, men and the babies. The jams the nuns ate.

I also preserved eggs in the big kerosene tins and if one egg went off it set the whole lot of them off and I was the one who got the blame for this and I would be beaten again by Sister Simeon. With the preserved eggs I made up a liquid with boiling water then when it was cold I would put the eggs into the kerosene tins with a spoon, the eggs had to be perfect without a spot or crake on them. These eggs were the nuns eggs.

When I was 12yeas old I had to kill the hens and then pluck and clean them, my fingers and hands had cuts all over them and they would fester and get swollen and still I did not go to see the doctor, I had to keep working and cooking with my sore hands. I could not stop or I would be beaten over my sore fingers again.

No one ever said sorry to me or say, here is plaster for your hands.

The work was all the same from one day to the next, but on Sundays and fest days I worked longer hours on that day as well as the day before preparing all the food so as I had the jellies, custard and all the cold meals ready for the next day, I cooked the hams which I based with mustard and pineapples the day before.

  KITCHEN GARDEN.

Sister Simeon had a flower garden beside the vegetable shed and opposite the old men's dinning room. I ask to do her garden because I though that if I did something that she like she would leave me alone and not thrash me any more. But for me it did not work, I tried so hard to make the nuns like me, but they didn't.

While I was busy pulling the weeds out and making sure that no flower plant was pulled out with the weeds and then whack across the back of my head would come a stick, again and again and again, with no stopping or brakes in-between. All I would do was put my hands up to take the blows. God I was 19years old and I could not defend myself. Why did they treat me like this. I am dead scared of the nuns/priest.

Sister Simeon had no heart or feelings at all, it was as if some evil force took over her as she lash out at me getting more strength as she kept on thrashing me, with me wondering when she would stop.

 RUN -A- WAY.

On 29 November 1997, in Christchurch, Patsy Olley told me that I ran away when I was young to Wellington and was a hero. I do not remember about this. How did I get a train to Lyttelton and then a boat to Wellington by myself. I had no money. She told me that I was away for a week. How and where I don't know? I do know that Frances, Pam and me ran away to see Mother Francis at Mount Madgala. I was put over the bed that night and thrashed by the nuns.

NURSE.

A nurse came once a year to examine us. We are all lined up with just our under pants and singlets. It is very cold. When it is my turn to see the nurse, she looks down my pants and then she lefts my singlets up to look at my chest. I guess it was to see if we had developed our breast and if any pubic hair had grown.

The girls who got put over the bed the night before, as well as any girls who had being beaten or thrashed were not allowed to see the nurse, by the nuns.

                                          PERIOD.

I remember when I first got my period. I was on the toilet and saw all of the blood. What is this? I have cut myself. I am going to die and I started to cry. I went to one of the nuns and told her about the blood. She gave me some rags. They were four thickness and sown up. We made our own pads after that. We had to leave them in a bucket of water in a little room by the toilets. We took turns each week to wash them.

I can not explain how disgusting and revolting this was. I would open the door to this room and the smell was repulsive. We never had pads like they have today. We were not allowed to use Tampax, because the nuns said that virgin girls do not use that sort of thing.

                             DO UNTO OTHERS.

My words to my children were. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." "If you can not say anything nice to people, don't say anything."

"If telling the truth to your friends will hurt them and you know that it will make them very upset and resentful towards you. Don't tell them."

"Is it not better to see a smile from a friend, than a knife in your back from a lost one."

                          PLAY - ROOM.

The older girls at Nazareth House would form a circle around me, then one of them would start to swing me around by my hair. She would throw me against the walls. They would take turns in swinging me around. They would do this again and again. There was always a nun by the door watching them do this to me, as well as to some of the other girls. The nuns did not stop it, they did not help me.

Copyright@ 2006-2010 Ann Thompson

All Rights Reseved