Ruth was born in 1937 and went to the Foundling Hospital School in Berkhamsted in 1942. She subsequently attended Watford Grammar School and Camden School for Girls, and trained as a nurse at University College Hospital. She later retrained and had a very fulfilling career as a health visitor. She has three daughters and lives in Suffolk.
Early Life
‘One day a teacher said: “Oh, you’re a very clever little girl so you’re going to a big school.” And that was all I was told. I didn’t question it, I just absorbed it until the day came when I was dressed in my best and handed my teddy and my doll and the coach came to the cottage door and I climbed on board with my foster mother and we set off for Berkhamsted which in those days was a long journey and as we got further from home and nearer to school I asked the question: “Will I be able to come home for my dinner?” which was always at midday in those days. And she said “no” but didn’t enlarge on it, and almost as we got into the school gates I said: “I will be able to come home tonight, won’t I?” And as we got off the coach the boys were shepherded one way, the girls the other. And she said: “Be a good girl” and she kissed me and she was gone.’
Into the World
‘There weren’t many options – you could become a short-hand typist or work in a shop or a factory and I couldn’t visualise what any of this was like. You know, what was an office? Everybody seemed to know what they were doing in a shop. And I always wondered how I would make that leap. It didn’t occur to me that somebody w– that there was training, that you would be taught, told what to do. Just this fear of not knowing what it was about. It was a very very real fear, I wanted to stay in my comfort zone … I look back and I think, “this is why I became a nurse…” There were rules, there was a uniform. It was– it was a hiding place, a comfort zone.’
Reflections
‘Nobody’s life is perfect, we all have triumphs and tragedies and you know you have to pick yourself up, you know you have to go on. ‘Cause there’s always somebody you’re going on for.’
School Life
‘But I do remember that you did have to have a bowel movement everyday or you had to have syrup of figs. I can– I can remember that. And cleaning teeth. There was a big washroom with basins all the way round and we stood, I think, probably two to a basin. And the nurse would say: “Taps on, brushes under, toothpaste…” — we had Gibbs toothpaste in a block and “Brush” and “Rinse” and “Brush” And it was all done in that very regimented way and then back into a– a crocodile again to– to school – into the– into the classrooms.’
Search for Birth Families
‘As children we always played out this game of who our mothers were and they were always beautiful, important, they weren’t– they weren’t ever ordinary, ordinary people. So, we all played the same game … And then slowly I realised that I didn’t want to pursue it. That if you turn over stones you have to take responsibility for what you find underneath, don’t you? Or you don’t do it … Not because I’ve firmly shut a door that I’m afraid to go through. It’s just one I– I don’t– don’t want to– to pursue. I– I’ve– I’ve had contact with people who have traced birth parents, not necessarily Foundlings, and have had very mixed outcomes. It’s not what perhaps I would’ve imagined as a child.’
