Authors: Judith Kelly
Rock Me Gently (31 page)
Letter from Ruth Norton to Judith Kelly
10 February 2005
Judith,
I’ve just read your book. Congratulations and thanks for bringing my story into it.
Thank God someone has had the courage to tell of the hell we lived through while in Nazareth House. If I have any criticism it’s the fact that you have been unable to bring out the full feeling of fear that lived with us day and night, week, month and year and for long after we left the place. That place has lived with me all my life.
Once more, congratulations and may your book do very well.
Ruth
Letter from Marjorie Lamb to Judith Kelly
29 May 2006
Dear Judith,
I have had your book read out to me. Thank you for writing it. It helps us a lot, although we do understand that you were not able to write about everything. We who have lived in that place know the pain and hurt that has lived within us. It was really good to know that someone had, at last, written the truth about it.
I remember when you first arrived at Nazareth House. you seemed so bewildered. I also remember the time you were beaten by Sister Mary and locked in the cupboard. We all felt so sorry for you.
In 1953 I visited my mother who had TB and dropsy. I was thirteen years old at the time. I sat with her, holding her hand and when my step-father came in I told him to be quiet because Mum was resting. He said, ‘You won’t f***ing wake her up. She’s dead!’ I ran to a neighbour who took me back to Nazareth House. I went to the linen room where Sister Leonard asked me what was wrong. I told her that Mum had died. She said, ‘You can stop bawling. It’s finished with.’ She took my mother’s watch away and I never saw it again. Two days later I had to sing with the rest of the choir to an old lady who was dying. I also remember during the following week we had to kiss a nun who had died and who was laid to rest in the chapel. On the Wednesday of that week Janet and Frances drowned.
I remember you were one of the girls on the rocks and you were pulled out of the water by a human chain. We were told by the nuns to never mention that day on the beach again. Judith don’t let anyone get to you. We are doing this for Janet and Frances and the other girls who cannot say or do anything about what went on while we were in that horrible place. Keep saying to yourself: this cruelty has got to stop. There are many people who, for reasons best known to themselves, are frightened about speaking out.
Love from
Marjorie
The text of this book is set in Linotype Sabon, named after the type founder Jacques Sabon. It was designed by Jan Tschichold and jointly developed by Linotype, Monotype and Stempel, in response to a need for a typeface to be available in identical form for mechanical hot metal composition and hand composition using foundry type.
Tschichold based his design for Sabon roman on a font engraved by Garamond, and Sabon italic on a font by Granjon. It was first used in 1966 and has proved an enduring modern classic.