Deborah Hart

I stumbled on Leonie Binge's book via the Care Leavers Network about two years ago. It is a fascinating read for anyone interested in the way children were brought up after a life change. My mother and her three sisters were sent to Mater Dei at Narellan after their parents died within a week of each other. My mother was one of 11 children who were orphaned within ten days of each other. Their names were Joseph and Mary Conroy and they brought up 11 children in the town of Boorowa in south-West NSW. It's so difficult to imagine losing one parent, but how difficult could you imagine being orphaned within ten days with no family members able to take some of the children in to their homes. The parents of these 11 children were buried in Boorowa within ten days and nobody in the could afford to support the children, aged from three months to 16 years old. My mother was seven years old when she and her younger sister and two older sisters were sent to Mater Dei orphanage in Narellan. My mother didn't have a good experience in the orphanage and neither did her slightly older sisters. Her youngest sister is the only one left alive. The nuns brought up the girls in the best way they could but there was never any cuddles. Luckily, their much older Chinese/Irish aunty brought all of the girls into her home once they reached 14 years of age (the stage where my mother ran away from the orphanage). I have read Nellie's Vow twice already, and I'm in the process of reading the book again. My mother was at Mater Dei about ten years after Leonie Binge's mother left the orphanage. My mother had an opportunity to have a guided tour of Mater Dei about 30 years before she died at the age of 59, along with my father. My mother remained close to her many siblings (all challenged by the early deaths of their parents) and they all managed to thrive as adults. I miss them all :-(