G
Grace
Guest
Alice drew the coarse wool blanket closer round her body, although it was August she felt so cold. She could hear the girls downstairs having their bread and scrape and she hoped that Ethel, the eldest, was looking after them. Albert had shouted at her again that morning that it was about time she looked after her chldren and attended to her homework. Dr.Ferguson had arrived a while ago and asked her a lot of questions about how she felt and she had told him how frightened and tired she was and so sick of her life and turned her face to the wall. The doctor and Albert had gone downstairs and she could hear them talking quietly.
Alice turned her mind back to when she married Albert in 1898, fourteen long years ago. He hadn't wanted to marry her when he found she was having his baby, in fact he was furious, but nevertheless they had married when she was over seven months pregnant. She remembered that her new husband wasn't at all pleased when she produced a daughter and four more, all girls, had followed in quick succession. Alice started to cry quietly when she recalled that wam day in April 1910 when Albert, the longed for son, was born. Such a beautiful baby, dark hair and big brown eyes, the girls loved him and Albert wanted him named after him. He had even started to stay at home a little more and not visited the pubs in Park Lane each night as he had before. The Spring of that year seemed to rush into summer and little Albert blossomed in the lovely weather. She remembered the day Ethel developed a bad cough and cold and it spread like wildfire through the girls. The steam rising from the damp clothes around the mantle seemed to bring relief and Annie was the worst despite poultices applied twice a day. Baby Albert started to cough at the beginning of August and worsened rapidly until they had no alternative but to find the money to pay the doctor to come and take a look at him. Alice trembled when she thought of that day in August when her little son died in her arms, he had been so ill for about ten days and just seemed to fade away, he was five months old. She held him and sobbed until he was pulled from her arms and taken away. After little Albert died she had tried her best to care for her girls and Ethel was wonderful with her siblings. Albert came home drunk most nights and at time she locked him out because she was frightened of him. She knew he blamed her for his son's death and when the last baby girl was born less than twelve months later that was the last straw, she could see the disgust in his eyes.
Downstairs Albert was explaining to the doctor that his wife had been sent to Hatton Asylum in 1908 after the birth of her fifth daughter, suffering from what the paperwork described as "confinement". She had been released six weeks later and went to stay with friends. Albert described how Alice refused to look after his children and spent much of her time in bed. He told how she locked him out at night and how she threatened to cut herself. She sometimes walked the streets in the evenings and didn't come back until the early hours. He said she had been in this condition since the birth of her last child, a daughter.
The doctor listened patiently while he completed the appropriate paperwork then informed Albert that his wife would be collected the following day and taken to All Saints Lunatic Asylum.
And so it was that Alice left home on that sunny Monday morning in August 1913 and All Saints awaited the reception of a pauper lunatic. Alice never returned home and died in Rubery Lunatic Asylum aged 98 in 1975.ÂÂ
Alice turned her mind back to when she married Albert in 1898, fourteen long years ago. He hadn't wanted to marry her when he found she was having his baby, in fact he was furious, but nevertheless they had married when she was over seven months pregnant. She remembered that her new husband wasn't at all pleased when she produced a daughter and four more, all girls, had followed in quick succession. Alice started to cry quietly when she recalled that wam day in April 1910 when Albert, the longed for son, was born. Such a beautiful baby, dark hair and big brown eyes, the girls loved him and Albert wanted him named after him. He had even started to stay at home a little more and not visited the pubs in Park Lane each night as he had before. The Spring of that year seemed to rush into summer and little Albert blossomed in the lovely weather. She remembered the day Ethel developed a bad cough and cold and it spread like wildfire through the girls. The steam rising from the damp clothes around the mantle seemed to bring relief and Annie was the worst despite poultices applied twice a day. Baby Albert started to cough at the beginning of August and worsened rapidly until they had no alternative but to find the money to pay the doctor to come and take a look at him. Alice trembled when she thought of that day in August when her little son died in her arms, he had been so ill for about ten days and just seemed to fade away, he was five months old. She held him and sobbed until he was pulled from her arms and taken away. After little Albert died she had tried her best to care for her girls and Ethel was wonderful with her siblings. Albert came home drunk most nights and at time she locked him out because she was frightened of him. She knew he blamed her for his son's death and when the last baby girl was born less than twelve months later that was the last straw, she could see the disgust in his eyes.
Downstairs Albert was explaining to the doctor that his wife had been sent to Hatton Asylum in 1908 after the birth of her fifth daughter, suffering from what the paperwork described as "confinement". She had been released six weeks later and went to stay with friends. Albert described how Alice refused to look after his children and spent much of her time in bed. He told how she locked him out at night and how she threatened to cut herself. She sometimes walked the streets in the evenings and didn't come back until the early hours. He said she had been in this condition since the birth of her last child, a daughter.
The doctor listened patiently while he completed the appropriate paperwork then informed Albert that his wife would be collected the following day and taken to All Saints Lunatic Asylum.
And so it was that Alice left home on that sunny Monday morning in August 1913 and All Saints awaited the reception of a pauper lunatic. Alice never returned home and died in Rubery Lunatic Asylum aged 98 in 1975.ÂÂ