Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel (free ebook reader for iphone txt) 📗

have surprised her. She had a gift for dealing with young children, and had embraced the ravaged children she had worked with there.

“Not a retreat, Mother. I’d like to go to Ireland.”

“For a vacation?” The location surprised her. They had a house in the Adirondacks where they all spent two weeks in the summer. They swam and played tennis and went for long walks. But none of the nuns went to Europe for a vacation, and certainly not on their own. And this wasn’t a pilgrimage to Lourdes, Jerusalem, or Rome.

“Not a vacation either.” Hattie realized with a sinking heart that there would be no way to convince the mother superior unless she told her the truth, the real reason she wanted to go. “It’s kind of a long story. It’s something I want to do for my sister. She took care of me after our parents died. I was only twelve and I owe her a lot. She had a baby out of wedlock at sixteen. Our parents, really my mother, sent her to Ireland, to a convent there, to have the baby and put it up for adoption. It was thirty-three years ago. She married eventually, at thirty-two, and had a little boy. He died of a brain tumor six years ago. She never recovered. She gave up her marriage and a successful career, and became a recluse. I saw her for the first time in six years two weeks ago, and we talked about the baby she gave up.” Sister Mary Joseph didn’t want to malign the convent in Ireland the way Melissa had, so she was careful about what she said. Mother Elizabeth was a staunch defender of the Church, and their sister nuns all over the world.

“A lot of young girls who got in trouble went to Ireland to disappear for a while, or to England to the mother and baby homes there, as they called them. The convents there were well set up to take care of them, and handled the adoptions for them. It was often the best solution for the girls and their parents. They left their babies there and came home, and resumed their lives, and no one knew what had happened,” the superior explained, “and they placed the infants in good homes, from what I’ve heard. The English mother and baby homes were often privately owned and not run as responsibly.”

“That’s pretty much what happened to my sister at the convent in Ireland. Except now she has lost her son, and the baby she gave up. She tried to contact the convent, to see if she could meet her daughter now, as an adult. She’d be thirty-three years old, but she was told that all the records have been destroyed by a fire. She has no way of finding out where her daughter is. She was adopted by Americans. That’s all she knows. And that they were going to call her Ashley. It was all she was told about them.”

“I’m sure the nuns in Ireland who handled those adoptions chose good parents for her. She can be assured of that,” the mother superior said through pursed lips.

“Even the state has changed their rules about not contacting the children women gave up for adoption. Many people have found their birth parents through the Internet. But there is no way for my sister to find out anything if the records were destroyed.” Hattie didn’t imply that Melissa believed the fire was intentional, but the superior seemed to know about it.

“I’ve heard stories that the records were destroyed. I think the nuns in charge of those convents thought it was for the best, to let the past stay buried. Many people never even told their children that they were adopted in those days. And many of those young girls never told their husbands and subsequent children that they’d given up a baby for adoption when they were teenagers. The truth can cause a great deal of damage.”

“My sister says she told her husband before they got married. And she’s alone now. I think it would help her recover from her losses if I could find out something about her daughter and put her mind at rest. Mother, I’d like to go to Ireland and visit the convent where she gave the baby up, near Dublin, and maybe some of the other convents, to see if any of those records survived or any of the nuns remember something about her.”

“It’s a needle in a haystack, Sister Mary Joe,” the superior said with a disapproving look. “And if you did find something out, what if it disrupts her daughter’s life to have her birth mother show up? The records were destroyed with good reason, and undoubtedly a great deal of thought.” But Hattie wondered what they were thinking now. Was Melissa right? Had they only destroyed the records to protect the Church? Melissa had called those convents baby mills, that had been run for profit, not just with good motives to provide babies for childless couples to adopt. All of the adopting couples had been rich, according to her sister, and a great deal of money had ended up in the hands of the Church. But she didn’t say that to Mother Elizabeth, or Hattie knew she’d turn her down. She didn’t want to make trouble for the convents. All she wanted was to help her sister find the baby she had given up, and had regretted all her life. Or at least find out something about where the baby had gone.

“I’m not proposing to make contact with her daughter, if I’m lucky enough to find out where she is, or where she went. I just want to find the information. It will be up to my sister after that. She may not have the courage to contact her, but at least she would know something about her, who adopted her and where she grew up.”

“I’m not sure I believe in raising the ghosts of