Hi Mags, you wrote: > There's lots of pressure from peers, parents, doctors, lawyers, as well as nurses/people who work in the hospital as >well as the church to do the "right" thing and relinquish a baby which was born out of "wedlock" (hate that term but >that's another issue) Read about the nuns associated with the Magdalene Laundries scandal in Ireland..and see for >yourself. Cruel behaviour. ...perhaps that explains the aforementioned venom a la Joan.
I think Joni might have a love/hate relationship with those old-world nuns she was exposed to and also, I think, when she was in the hospital long-term with polio as a child. Why did she turn to them again when she was pregnant? One can argue that they were there for her when she felt she apparently had nowhere else to go. Now I'm wondering about social services in Canada back at that time. Were there no other options for her and was welfare assistance not available to her? I recall a "home" here in LA for unwed mothers back in that time period which was not affiliated with any religion and was supported by philanthropists. I remember that some woman and young girls would go there even though they could have stayed at home with their parents for the duration of the pregnancy. They did it because of the "stigma" at the time. They could disappear for a few months and then come back to school and make up any story to explain their absence. Sad. My recollection from the Joni articles and interviews is that she kept her baby for awhile and then sould not support her alone. She then put her in a foster home. Joni had photos of Kilauren as a baby and that is one of the ways she knew Kilauren was her daughter - because Kilauren also had baby photos from the same age which matched Joni's. Chuck promised to take the baby, she thought she could take the baby back. Then Chuck reneged and Joni had to "sign all the papers." Kakki
