Saving Lily

Orphan

My second memory. I remember the harsh tone of the nuns who ran the home. It was always cold in my room at night and I would cry because I missed my mother. I would have done anything for one of her warm hugs.

The girls there my age weren't very nice and I often found myself playing alone with the faires.

They teased me a lot for that.

"Fairies aren't real." They would say.

"Yes they are!" I argued back.

"She thinks the fairies will bring her mom back."

"Well they won't, because they aren't real."

"Yeah, you're an orphan, so just accept it."

But I couldn't accept it. I didn't know how. I had always had her with me, and it was hard to imagine being all alone.

I took out the little box a nice nurse gave me to hold my mom's pearls before I left the hospital. I would open the lid taking them out gently and hold them to my lips as I kissed them, telling her I loved her.

I would often get into trouble and had to spend a lot of time in isolation asking for forgiveness.

I didn't understand the concept of asking a man who lived in the sky that I couldn't see for forgiveness, and there was no one to take the time to explain it to me.

Besides if there was such a man and he loved us as the sisters said, then why would he take my mother away from me? I was all alone in the world, and I didn't understand why.

I spent a lot of time in isolation wondering what was going to happen to me now. If someone was going to come get me. Or if this was my life now.

The food was bland and all we were allowed to drink was water. We were never allowed to have dessert except for the holidays. Then it was pumpkin pie, the one thing I hated the most.

On Thanksgiving Day we would all gather around the chapel and stand to say what we were thankful for.

I always got punished because I never had anything to say. I couldn't find anything in my life to be thankful for. And no one seemed to care.

The older girls there were not very kind to me either. They made fun of me for my small size, or my plain brown hair. One time I got locked in a closet for hours because I made eye contact with one of them. I got the memo fairly quickly to keep my head down, my mouth shut and to stay out of their way, which led to my relief when Robert and Grace Mahoney came to adopt me.

I thought I had finally got the chance to have a normal life again, with a real family. I would have a brother and sister and a mom and dad.

We would go on outings and play at the park. And maybe my new mom would push me on the swing too. I could play dress up with my new sister and make mud pies with my new brother.

I bounced in my seat as I waited for them to arrive to pick me up. I was so excited to be getting to out of the girls home. I knew my life was going to change forever.

Little did I know it was going to change in ways that I could never even imagine.