Mary wrote: > Me now: I'm basing this on a memory of an old article (maybe in Vogue, circa > August, 1995, which was one of the very first times Joni spoke of this > experience publicly?). And, as I recall it, the article discussed the birth > taking place in a Catholic hospital, not a home, although I could be > wrong--it's been a while.
You are right - I thought she had been in awhile because she had commented on how the unwed mothers were treated and it sounded like she was in for a time. She did stay in a Catholic charity hospital almost two weeks as a result of complications. She has spoken about this in a few articles - the one I recalled is from the L.A. Times here http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=83 In this article, she also says that it was the adoption agency, and not the nuns who told her to give the back up quickly so it would be more "adoptable." > However, whatever the exact location, I never got the impression that Joni had > much of a choice in the matter, or that she was somehow trying to punish > herself. Why did she go to the nuns? She was young, pregnant, in desperate > poverty--and they were there. It may have been as simple as that. Yes, that is kind of my take on it, as opposed to the implication that she was *forced* into a Magdalene Laundries situation. Also, Joni was not raised a Catholic, so the premise that she may have had some kind of a lifelong sense of shame and self-loathing from them doesn't add up to me. Kakki
