According to my birth certificate I was born in a small town in France, but I've no memory of ever being there. It says, "female," and I agree with that. I'm very female and I enjoy it. The birth certificate records my name as Celine Laurent and identifies a woman and a man as my parents, but I've never met them and have no idea who they were. Nor have I ever felt any need to find them and introduce myself. They might not approve of what I've become. But then again they abandoned me at birth or soon thereafter so I owe them nothing.
My earliest memories are of an orphanage in rural France where I was raised to age 12 (assuming the date on my birth certificate was correct). During my youth Europe was still a smoldering wreck recovering from the carnage of World War II, but I was oblivious to the status of the society outside the walls of the nunnery. The nuns who ran the orphanage were kind to me. They provided me with a good basic education. By 12 I spoke fluent English along with my native French and I could read and write (in both languages), had basic math skills, and probably the same level of education in history and science that other children my age received in France before the war and likely better than under immediate post-war conditions.
My parents, whoever they were had done me a giant favor in leaving me at the orphanage, or perhaps they were simply victims of the fighting unable to raise me because of their death. I will never know.
There has been a great number of adverse reports about child abuse in institutions like the one I was raised in, but I have to say strongly that I had no such experience nor was I ever aware of any of the other children I grew up with being abused. We were required to work of course. As in any orphanage there were chores as soon as a child was old enough to perform them. There was also discipline, not physical, but none the less clear consequences of misbehavior in terms of additional chores or denied privileges such as dessert trips into the village. We were all raised to understand the importance of controlling our urges and following rules, training that has served me well throughout my life.
When I was 12 I was called into the Mother Superior's office. I couldn't think of why Mother Superior would want to see me. I had done nothing wrong that I was aware of nor did I expect a reward for exemplary conduct of some kind. I was apprehensive as one always is when called in to see the powers that be. Her office was a large one. She sat behind a big desk and looked at anyone who came in over the top of a pair of half shaped reading glasses secured by a chain around her neck. I knocked and heard "
Entrez
," spoken by Mother Superior. I opened the heavy door and stood in it looking across the wide office. In addition to Mother Superior, there were a man and a woman sitting on a couch on one side of the room. The man was tall and angular. He wore a dark brown suit which, although well-tailored, hung about him a bit as there was apparently not an ounce of fat filling out his frame. His black oxfords were shinned to a gleam that could only result from daily polishing. His dark hair was neatly trimmed, oiled (almost to a gleam matching his oxfords), and combed over a clearly thinning top. His face, like many in Europe at that time showed signs of long-term malnutrition, thin and bony with a pronounced beak of a nose. The woman wore a well-tailored dark suit with a skirt that came well down over her knees, dark nylons, and a pair of black, high heeled, pumps. Her legs were crossed and her hands folded in her lap. Her dark hair was twisted in a coil around and atop her head. Her make-up emphasized her high cheek bones and dark eyes. Even with lipstick her small mouth gave her a severe look. Like her partner she had a lean and hungry look. Each of the visitors looked to be in perhaps their mid to late thirties. They said nothing as I stood in the doorway, their eyes scanning my tall and gangly frame from top to bottom.
It was unusual for us to have visitors at the orphanage (Who visits an orphanage? People leave children there to get them out of their life, not park them for occasional visits). Their presence enhanced my insecurity at being called to Mother Superior's office. "Yes Mother Superior," I said as I stepped into the office. "You asked for me?"
"Yes. Come in please. And close the door behind you." I stepped in and after closing the door I stood before it, my hands down and crossed before my workday dress and my eyes focused on the floor. I couldn't imagine what kind of trouble I was in.
"Celine, this is Monsieur Fabric and Madame Sante (not their real names I would learn later). Please have a seat. They have a few questions they would like to ask you."
Before I could sit the woman first asked me to walk across the floor to where they sat and to turn before them. I did as requested and then walked back to the seat mother Superior had indicated. As I sat down I saw Madame Sante look to Monsieur Fabric and nod her head in approval. They asked a few questions about where I was born (the town on my birth certificate), how long I had been at the orphanage (my whole life), and whether I knew my parents (I did not nor did Mother Superior). They spoke French with a heavy English accent. There were other questions which when I looked back on it later assured them that I was purely a product of the orphanage. After a few minutes of questioning they looked at each other and nodded. Monsieur Fabric looked at Mother Superior and said, "Yes, she will do."
"Very well," Mother Superior responded. "We can have the papers completed shortly."
"No need for papers," Fabric said.
"But we will need a record," responded Mother Superior with concern.
"No," said Madame Sante. "We will take her now. We don't want papers."
Mother Superior bowed her head and said, "Very well." She turned to me and said, "Celine you will be leaving with Monsieur Fabric and Madame Sante. Go and pack your things."
"There will be no need for that," Madame Sante said. "We will get her new clothing when we get to Paris."
Mother Superior rose and said, "Very well. As you wish." Looking at me she said, "Celine you will be going with them now." I am sure that Mother Superior simply viewed the whole transaction as one less mouth to feed and body to house in her always over-filled orphanage. As I left Mother Superior covertly slipped an envelope into a pocket of my work dress. It contained a copy of my French birth certificate, which I still have today. I suppose that makes me a French citizen, but I have never tried to claim my rights as such. American citizenship has met my needs.
We did not go to Paris, instead going only to Orly field where we boarded an aircraft that took us to London and then on to New York with a refueling stop in Gander. It was 1955 and I was one of thousands of orphaned children in Europe, but I had been rescued and had a new American identity by the time we reached Customs in New York the next day. I was Carolyn Smith, born in Waco, Texas. The only thing I kept from my childhood was my birth year of 1943 although the specific date on my new birth certificate was a few days off. Beyond getting my birth date nearly correct it was a complete fabrication, listing parents I would discover later had never existed. We went directly from La Guardia airport to a mansion a few miles above New York City on the Hudson River.
I would live there for the next 7 years as the daughter of the head caretaker of the mansion's extensive gardens. Hamish, as his name indicated, was from Scotland, then in his late forties. I lived with him and he cared for me for the next 7 years, but our relationship was never that of father and daughter. It was obvious to me from the start that looking after me was just another part of the duties assigned Hamish by the property owner. Hire the gardening staff, make sure the lawns are mowed weekly, the bushes and trees trimmed as necessary, and annual flowers planted each year; and oh yes, look after the orphan with the funny French accent. I was just another task for Hamish even though I shared his cottage on the back of the grounds.
I had the run of the mansion grounds, almost a hundred acres, but there were, just as in the orphanage, rules: attend the classes with the tutor for the children of the staff; do my schoolwork; and above all, stay out of the Manor house at the front of the estate. There was a kitchen in the basement of the Manor house that I was allowed in. It was the domain of the resident staff (the gardeners, the cooks, the stablemen, and others who made the place work) and their families where meals were served three times a day. There was also a classroom there where a tutor ruled over the education of the children of the staff, such as me. She was severe and we quickly learned life would be best if we did our assignments when and as directed and did not cross her. Living with Hamish remained passive so long as he was not receiving complaints from the tutor about my performance or conduct. All in all, I had a good life for the next 7 years. Hamish was far from nurturing, but he was okay to live with once I learned to decipher his Highland Scottish dialect and followed his rules about how to live at the manor as one of the staff.
My French accent stayed with me as I grew up. Later I would learn to manage my accent as the circumstances dictated. Generally I spoke English with that basic California everyman's dialect. That became my go-to choice. Later I developed the ability to be Upper Eastside, Southern, or even French. I also retained my ability to be fluent in French if the accent would be inadequate for my purposes. Language and dialect I learned were simply another tool to be used in creating the persona you chose to present, like clothing, hairstyle, make-up, etc.
Hamish being the dour Scotts' bachelor he was, wasn't about to have anything close to the traditional 'father daughter' talk with me. That was left to Mrs. Crenshaw, the head cook, who did a passable job of standing in as a mother. She wasn't a mother I could go crying to when things went wrong nor was Hamish one to hear my sad tale. Recovery was up to me. But Mrs. Crenshaw did provide me with the basic facts about the birds and the bees, men and sex, pregnancy, and other things a young girl needs to know and more detail than Hamish about the Manor and it's rules. Needless to say there was no sex education unit in our classroom training (it was the late 1950s after all). I learned a bit more about sex from the stash of graphic porn magazines Hamish kept hidden beneath his bed. He never knew I looked at them, but I found them shortly after my 18
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