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Patty’s Journey: From Orphanage To Adoption And Reunion
In 1936, four-year-old Patty Pearson was taken from her parents and placed in the State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children in Owatonna, Minnesota. Once at Owatonna, Patty was separated from her sister and brother, was sexually abused by the school janitor, and contracted tuberculosis. She was placed in two foster homes where she endured a variety of emotional and physical abuses. Eventually adopted at the age of seven, she would not see her sister again for more than thirty years.
Through her late childhood and teen years Patty learned to negotiate the shoals of life as an adoptee - striving for full membership in the family, repressing her anger at being forbidden to discuss her past, wondering what became of her sister, brother, mother, and father. As a young woman coming of age she grew to appreciate the good things her adoptive family offered her even while holding on to a sense of self they wanted her to suppress.
Patty's Journey is a richly textured account of people struggling through the Great Depression and war years, but it also illuminates the customs and small victories of that era, often in surprising and humorous ways. Although it provides a disturbing look at child-rearing practices in state orphanages at the time, it is ultimately a redemptive tale of one woman's bravery in facing her past - and moving ahead toward a future that included both her selves.
Through her late childhood and teen years Patty learned to negotiate the shoals of life as an adoptee - striving for full membership in the family, repressing her anger at being forbidden to discuss her past, wondering what became of her sister, brother, mother, and father. As a young woman coming of age she grew to appreciate the good things her adoptive family offered her even while holding on to a sense of self they wanted her to suppress.
Patty's Journey is a richly textured account of people struggling through the Great Depression and war years, but it also illuminates the customs and small victories of that era, often in surprising and humorous ways. Although it provides a disturbing look at child-rearing practices in state orphanages at the time, it is ultimately a redemptive tale of one woman's bravery in facing her past - and moving ahead toward a future that included both her selves.
- GenresAdoption
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 28, 2016
Note: Spoileryish; spoilers not marked.
Side Note: Why is this book rated so low!?!
This was an interesting book to see from a child's eyes how living in an orphanage and being adoption might affect one.
This maybe not have been the most beautifully written book but it was still a very good read. To see how Patty felt when being torn away from her mother and then her siblings and then right after those traumatic incidents to be molested!! That really broke my heart. I really felt for Yolanda (?) as an older sister trying to keep her siblings together.
Reading about Patty's experiences with her adopted parents, the Scotts, made me so piss. How can you tell a child who you adopted to be your OWN daughter that I can send you back where you came from. (Now all the times it was said was in anger but still.) It just really showed me that you need to be careful what you say to children especially when you're angry.
Another Scott experience that made me a bit peeved was that they wouldn't let Patty talk about her past so she never got closure. They tried to wipe her slate clean but she was too old to even attempt to try to do it.
Overall though the Scotts just were dealing with Patty the best way they knew how. So I can't lay all my anger at their feet.
I felt bad for Patty's mom but I hated how she almost brushed them off the last time Patty really recalls seeing her. I felt that she was being a bit selfish. She was moving on with her life but she almost made it seem like that was the final time she wanted to see her children.
The reunion with Yolanda (?) was a bit lack luster but I can understand how awkward one might be while meeting their sibling after 30+ years. It was also sad that we never found out what happened to their brother.
A great book to see back in time.
Side Note: Why is this book rated so low!?!
This was an interesting book to see from a child's eyes how living in an orphanage and being adoption might affect one.
This maybe not have been the most beautifully written book but it was still a very good read. To see how Patty felt when being torn away from her mother and then her siblings and then right after those traumatic incidents to be molested!! That really broke my heart. I really felt for Yolanda (?) as an older sister trying to keep her siblings together.
Reading about Patty's experiences with her adopted parents, the Scotts, made me so piss. How can you tell a child who you adopted to be your OWN daughter that I can send you back where you came from. (Now all the times it was said was in anger but still.) It just really showed me that you need to be careful what you say to children especially when you're angry.
Another Scott experience that made me a bit peeved was that they wouldn't let Patty talk about her past so she never got closure. They tried to wipe her slate clean but she was too old to even attempt to try to do it.
Overall though the Scotts just were dealing with Patty the best way they knew how. So I can't lay all my anger at their feet.
I felt bad for Patty's mom but I hated how she almost brushed them off the last time Patty really recalls seeing her. I felt that she was being a bit selfish. She was moving on with her life but she almost made it seem like that was the final time she wanted to see her children.
The reunion with Yolanda (?) was a bit lack luster but I can understand how awkward one might be while meeting their sibling after 30+ years. It was also sad that we never found out what happened to their brother.
A great book to see back in time.
April 29, 2019
This book was so interesting, heartbreaking & hopeful. The whole book had such great detail - amazing. It was really interesting reading from a child's view - So Sad. It held my interest but made me cry - Very glad she found her prince.
September 30, 2019
A memoir that gives readers a perspective of life during the Great Depression, living in a state run orphanage, foster care and adoption from the experience of the author, then a child. So many injustices for children at that place and time in history.
August 30, 2022
Written by a child that was sent to Owatonna's State School for Dependent and Neglected Children. Follows her time there, in foster care and finally being adopted. Her personal story of adapting and
later searching for her siblings.
later searching for her siblings.
August 5, 2022
This is such an important story to tell. My book club read this book and went to Owatonna to tour the orphanage and cemetery. Very enlightening.
June 15, 2015
so so so sad
January 21, 2016
Kind of boring ... Got halfway through and couldn't finish it because it was so slow.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews