Kathleen Dean  
​St Mary’s Home Girl  1930 – 1937
Kathleen (right) with her elder sister Ethel in the grounds of St. Mary’s.
Photo thought to include Kathleen  (standing second right).


My mum, Kathleen Dean, born January 6th 1926 in Pelaw, spent seven years of her childhood in St Mary’s in the 1930s. Her father, a miner, had died when she was 2 years old and following the death of her mother just 2 years later she was admitted to St Mary’s in 1930 along with her sisters Ethel and Joyce, her brother John being sent to a home for boys. My mum remained in the home until she was 11 when she was adopted by relatives.

 







Of her time in the home, my mum recalled asking the cooks for skewers to learn to knit and crochet, she talked of the statue in the courtyard being very scary in the dark, of having her bed stripped in the night if it was wet and then being hit for doing so.  My mum hurt her leg one day and the nuns pushed and pulled it until it was completely broken - and only then did she receive any help from medical personnel. She said that any gifts they happened to receive were soon taken from them and given to someone else if the nuns deemed them more deserving.
 





My mum had a very lonely childhood and life until she met my father and was taken in by his family as she had merely been treated as a worker by her aunt and uncle. Although there had been other family members who had wanted to adopt my mum they had not been allowed to do so as they were not Catholic.
 

​Story shared by Kathleen’s daughter Christine Welsh Wasef, Canada
October 2015
Kathleen's sisters Ethel and Joyce before misfortune befell their family and saw them put into St Mary's Home
 John James Dean
St Mary's Home Boy
Kathleen's brother John is also thought to have been in St Mary's iHome. 

John worked as a chef for many years and lived in Alnwick until his death August 02, 2005.

Although they lost contact for  many years, the siblings were reunited as adults after Kathleen travelled to England and tracked her brother down, John even making a trip to Canada to visit his sister in the 1970s.