Port Regus 1953 By Sandra Cook As I Was Known Then.

A Memory of Broadstairs.

I was left here in 1953 at the age of 5 by my parents. It was run by nuns. My parents walked away and left me there and I didn't know why or what I had done wrong. Later my mother said it was because I was too thin. It has had an effect on me the rest of my life. i cried and cried every night I was there. We slept in a dormitory and there was no child furniture in those days, so everything was gigantic to me. I wet the bed in my sleep every night and was always in big trouble because of it and I was made to make my own bed and as they were high, this was hard for me. I was there for nearly a year and had my 6th birthday there and on that occasion my parents visited me. I begged them to take me home. I also spent Christmas there. In the night on Christmas Eve a Novis Nun who was very kind came and asked me if I wanted to open a present, it was a doll and I clung to it with all my life and sobbed. We were made to eat the same food every day, and not much to drink. Every Sunday we were taken into a chapel where a priest came and told us that if we told one lie we would burn in hell for eternity. I was very frightened. I remember that one day we had to strip to our pants and walk round a paraffin heater and take deep breaths, this was supposed to help us get stronger, I think it was some sort of exercise. I could not run away as we had come miles in a train and I did not know where we were. The heartbreak of being separated from my parents at such a young age has always stayed with me. I have photos of the place and I have been back since. It is a different place now, but I got the shivers when I entered certain rooms that brought back powerful memories. The nuns were hard a uncaring, there was no love given. My father brought me home in the end.