Shalom House

Shalom House. Which it was anything but. They used us pretty well for all their domestic needs. It was a very bad place, a very bad set up. Very bad things there.

One incident of many: A little boy, he’d done something. It can’t have been very wrong. They sent him out to get a wooden spoon which is how they punished you, with a wooden spoon. He bought a small one. They sent him back to get a bigger one. The nastiness of it. So stupid!

That's all you got, more or less, supper: Bread & margarine. Porridge in the morning & bread & margarine & cocoa. And then I hated cocoa after that forever.

I just took everything that was thrown at me & there was quite a lot! You accepted it & relied on your fellow sufferers for friendship etc. There was nothing outside us. By age 12 I’d never heard of the Queen or King or anything like that.