MONTE PIO, MURRAY DWYER ORPHANAGE REUNION
Sunday, 6 March 2011

Thank you to Nancy and Anne and Pat and other organisers for all the effort you’ve gone to over the years putting together these re-unions. And thank you for inviting me to share my own thoughts based on my own time in the orphanage. Some of my thoughts will no doubt reflect some of your own. Some might be different.

I’m not here to rake over coals or to re-create any unhappiness any of us may have felt during our time at Monte Pio or Murray Dwyer. I’d rather focus on the good things that came out of it all. My own life’s moved on in a very positive direction and, in my own way, I’m grateful for the harder times, because they make me realise what a good life I’ve got now. I’ve even made up a saying about that which I’ve passed on to my daughter and son."

To: montepio
Sent: Friday, 6 February 2009

I have many memories of “Monte”. I was there from about 1966 – 1970. Also for a short time before that.

The mind gets a bit hazy now and then. I remember……

The razzle dazzle; the rocker [some girls rocked so hard and fast it tipped over].

The Wooder girls getting their beautiful long hair cut with a basin shape.

Dancing in the sewing room to the radio; watching TV always with a nun present; lolly night; the TV going upstairs to the ‘big girls” dormitory; the “charges” we older girls had to look after.

Casseroles of just baked beans or fried tomato; sago pudding [I refused to eat and to this day hate with a passion]; flamange; Sister Pia in the kitchen with her fat cat.

To: montepio
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2005 3:41 PM

Hi

Just found your website and how excited I was. My sister Joanne and I were at Monte Pio from, I think, the end of '67 or possibly '68. Don't know how long we were there. I was 5 or 6 at the time; Jo was a year older than me.

Our life was quite in turmoil at that time with our mother dying and our family being torn apart. There were twelve children in our family, some grown up some not. Some of my brothers were sent to Boys Town in Sydney. Jo and I were taken by our Great Aunt who was a very sick lady and put us in the home not long after she took us. We went home on some weekends and holidays I think.

Where to start?

First and foremost, to thank God and my father for putting me into Monte Pio and not some other girls' home. I didn't have the shockingly terrifying experiences of many children who were placed in care, in institutions and homes throughout Australia. The broken spirits and the thread of fear that runs through all the stories I have read, have caused me a few tears.

I remember when I was leaving Monte Pio, the Sister in Charge said to me “When I told you to do this, or go do that, it wasn’t because I had a grudge against you; I did it because when I asked you to do something, it would be done properly and I could rely on you… Now go and I hope the rest of your life is very, very good and for goodness sake don’t marry the first bloke you see.” That was the last thing I thought about – marriage…. Anyway, I did say to her later when I went to live with this Aunty of mine “Sister, you threw me from the frying pan into the fire, because I would have been better off coming back to you.” That’s how badly I was treated in that house. I was used as unpaid help.