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Authors: Julie Dewey
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school and watch over her siblings. She herself would venture out in the daytime to sweep storefronts or beg for coin for more food. One night her mother didn’t come home at all and she was found dead in the ally way near their small home in lower Manhattan. She had been brutally raped and beaten to death. They found her with no shoes, no skirt, just a torn shift and simple cross around her neck tied with shoestring.
Agnes was separated from her siblings and brought to a corporately funded House of Refuge with hundreds of other neglected and abandoned children. The home for the refugees was poorly run and Agnes spent many pointless days scrubbing floorboards and washing windows. The children were given jobs to help keep them out of trouble but in many instances they were whipped and beaten or deprived of food if the overseer didn’t approve of their work. The children were often sickly and went without proper medical attention. Thankfully the Sisters of Charity were in need of a few young ladies to help them in the new journey they were set to begin across the countryside. The journey involved taking destitute children out of the filthy cramped city teaming with crime and delivering them to the countryside for a more healthy way of living. In return for the help the Sisters promised to bring children from the refuge home on their next trip west.
Agnes fingered the smooth wooden cross around her neck, “This was my mother Anna’s. She did her best to care for us. I will never know what happened to my siblings, but my destiny now is to help all of these children, and you too.” A tear trickled down her cheek and she let it roll onto her habit, she had chosen a life of faith instead of the painful life of family. She opened her bible and began mouthing the words to her favorite psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd…..”
“How old are you, Agnes?” I asked interrupting her recitation.
“I suspect I am nearing eighteen,” she answered without looking up from her bible.
I crept back to my wooden plank seat in the last row of the carriage and thought of my life on the farm and of my parents. Suddenly I was grateful that neither of my parents agonized with death. To think of my mama giving herself to men for coin was sickening. To think of that act at all was disgusting but if it was with someone you loved perhaps it was okay.
I grew sullen as the days passed and more children were taken into loving homes. It wasn’t fair that my da died nor was it fair I had no mama; I had no one in this life to love me. Scotty and Little Eddie were the closet things I had to family and now they were gone, too.
I was setting up my new plan when the train pulled into our next stop, this time in Ohio. I was thinking of turning to the Lord and becoming a Sister like Agnes when a familiar cry reached my ears. We were walking off the train when the sound captured my attention; it was the wail of Edmund! He was being returned on account of his difficult nature. The gentleman who had signed the papers for him handed him to me and sought Sister Agnes. They were deep in concentrated discussion about the situation.
“It isn’t natural ma’am, if you’ll pardon me for saying so.” The gentleman had taken off his top hat while speaking with Agnes and gesturing to Eddie who was now safely in my arms.
Clinging to me as though his life depended upon it, I wiped Eddie’s snotty nose and kissed him on his cheeks. I missed this child dearly and now that he was back I would never let him go again. His eyes were puffy and tear stained and I kissed them too. I overheard the gentleman’s comment on Eddie’s unnatural affection for me and shook the thought aside. I was the closest thing he had to a mother and being separated from me caused him too much anxiety.
“Oh Eddie, I love you!” I exclaimed, selfishly happy he was back with me.
“Eddie wuvs you!” the child said softly before nestling into my welcoming arms once again.
Agnes had
Agnes was separated from her siblings and brought to a corporately funded House of Refuge with hundreds of other neglected and abandoned children. The home for the refugees was poorly run and Agnes spent many pointless days scrubbing floorboards and washing windows. The children were given jobs to help keep them out of trouble but in many instances they were whipped and beaten or deprived of food if the overseer didn’t approve of their work. The children were often sickly and went without proper medical attention. Thankfully the Sisters of Charity were in need of a few young ladies to help them in the new journey they were set to begin across the countryside. The journey involved taking destitute children out of the filthy cramped city teaming with crime and delivering them to the countryside for a more healthy way of living. In return for the help the Sisters promised to bring children from the refuge home on their next trip west.
Agnes fingered the smooth wooden cross around her neck, “This was my mother Anna’s. She did her best to care for us. I will never know what happened to my siblings, but my destiny now is to help all of these children, and you too.” A tear trickled down her cheek and she let it roll onto her habit, she had chosen a life of faith instead of the painful life of family. She opened her bible and began mouthing the words to her favorite psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd…..”
“How old are you, Agnes?” I asked interrupting her recitation.
“I suspect I am nearing eighteen,” she answered without looking up from her bible.
I crept back to my wooden plank seat in the last row of the carriage and thought of my life on the farm and of my parents. Suddenly I was grateful that neither of my parents agonized with death. To think of my mama giving herself to men for coin was sickening. To think of that act at all was disgusting but if it was with someone you loved perhaps it was okay.
I grew sullen as the days passed and more children were taken into loving homes. It wasn’t fair that my da died nor was it fair I had no mama; I had no one in this life to love me. Scotty and Little Eddie were the closet things I had to family and now they were gone, too.
I was setting up my new plan when the train pulled into our next stop, this time in Ohio. I was thinking of turning to the Lord and becoming a Sister like Agnes when a familiar cry reached my ears. We were walking off the train when the sound captured my attention; it was the wail of Edmund! He was being returned on account of his difficult nature. The gentleman who had signed the papers for him handed him to me and sought Sister Agnes. They were deep in concentrated discussion about the situation.
“It isn’t natural ma’am, if you’ll pardon me for saying so.” The gentleman had taken off his top hat while speaking with Agnes and gesturing to Eddie who was now safely in my arms.
Clinging to me as though his life depended upon it, I wiped Eddie’s snotty nose and kissed him on his cheeks. I missed this child dearly and now that he was back I would never let him go again. His eyes were puffy and tear stained and I kissed them too. I overheard the gentleman’s comment on Eddie’s unnatural affection for me and shook the thought aside. I was the closest thing he had to a mother and being separated from me caused him too much anxiety.
“Oh Eddie, I love you!” I exclaimed, selfishly happy he was back with me.
“Eddie wuvs you!” the child said softly before nestling into my welcoming arms once again.
Agnes had
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