The Orphaned, the Abandoned & The Adventurous
March 17, 2007 by kate baggott
Filed under Mommy Extras
Francis Kane, my great-grandfather, sailed from Ireland on a cattle boat. He was 14 years-old and, probably, running away. He and his siblings had been “farmed out” or sent to work for farmers in exchange for their room and board, a state that generally meant a bed in the straw and rations that just fended off starvation. In Canada, his first job was in a brick factory, but by the mid-1920s he and his wife owned their own home and had nine children.
On St. Patrick’s Day, I think of Frank Kane and all the other children — the orphaned, the abandoned, and the adventurous — who set off or were sent off to make new lives in the new world. What bothers me most is that it still happens. Children still show up at airports around the world, escaping some horror I cannot imagine. They are still all alone. While we might have children’s aid societies, foster homes and means of tracking distant relatives, it seems to me that we can learn something from the exodus of past famines, wars, and epidemics.
It seems to me that saying, warmly, “You are welcome here,” is the best thing to tell a stranger. It seems to me the best celebration of St. Patrick’s Day.
What a wonderful post!
My great-grandfather came to America from the famine and dire poverty of Eastern Europe alone, at the unbelievably young age of seven. He got a job running errands for a man who owned a pushcart on New York City’s lower east side. It took him seven years to save the money to bring his twin sister over to join him. By the time my grandmother was born, he owned his own pushcart, selling paper and twine, and by the end of his life, he owned a little store that his family lived above.
Do you ever wonder if it is still possible to make a life from nothing?
I think it is. But I think it is even harder now, if that is possible.
You are probably right. I think it is also possible that people’s expectations of ease are too high.
I am sure that is so.