Thursday, January 29, 2009

Little Dorothy

Little Dorothy used to fall asleep on her sister's lap during school hours. At first the nuns at the Orphanage, St. Gertrude's Academy, didn't want to take Dorothy.

"She's too little," the Superior said. "We don't have any girls under 5 and we have nowhere to put her during the day."

But Aunt Mae convinced them not to separate the sisters who had lost both of their parents and their older sister to the flu epidemic, and whose brother had been sent down the road to the boys' school.

"Please don't separate them," she said. "Kate will take care of her sister."

And so Kate had to promise to keep Dorothy with her at her desk in the schoolroom during the day, and to keep her quiet. Dorothy was a good girl, so she would curl up on the bench next to her sister and listen to the lessons until she was sleepy enough to take a nap. She was only 3 years old.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That puts such a lovely picture in my head. So sweet.