THREE KEY FACTS: Many American servicemen came to Wellington during World War II. Around 35% of women who became pregnant out of wedlock between World War II and 1975 spent time in an institution to conceal their pregnancies. St Vincent’s Home of Compassion was a place for unmarried women to have their babies.
In this edited extract from Mary Garden’s new book My Father’s Suitcas e, the writer tells how two months after their Mum died, Garden and her siblings discovered they had another brother. Michael James McClennan . Their mother had lived and died with this secret.
A second cousin rang to tell me that before she met Dad, Mum had given birth to a son and placed him for adoption. The news was a bombshell. I burst into tears.
I don’t recall much about the conversation, except that she said something about Michael being very well known in New Zealand as he’d been a famous footballer. It didn’t make sense. How could Mum not have told me? I’d shared so much about my personal life with her.
I was a mother too, and she knew I’d had two abortions ..
