The Home for Unwanted Girls
My search for historical fiction set in Quebec led me to this book by Joanna Goodman. The novel I’m writing is set in a convent in France two hundred years earlier, but I thought this book would give me a feel for what life might be like for an orphan in a convent school. It did not—at least, I hope not.
Joanna Goodman’s book is an eye-opener. According to the author’s notes, it is based on a true family story. In about 1880, orphaned or abandoned girls were sent to orphanages. With the government’s total disregard for the children’s safety, the orphanages were turned into mental institutions…because they were paid better for mental patients than for orphans. The girls, aged five to fifteen, were “tested” and deemed “retarded.”
Housed with and caring for the “crazies,” some girls spoke up for themselves and were brutally punished. Innocent girls received cruel treatment at the hands of the head nun and did not fair much better with complicit nuns obeying her orders. If one-tenth of the facts are true, the system was run by criminals.
Still, it’s a good story of hope and survival. I’m glad I found it…but the characters in my book will be in a kinder, gentler convent school…run without government inference at a time when religious orders took their missions seriously: to educate girls, care for the sick, or help the poor.
I hope to have my historical fiction novel published by the end of 2026. Loving the research!
Jeanne Meeks ~ Fiction Author 