The convent school for boys run by nuns
was a very drab and rather depressing place.
Religion tainted everything. Of course, in the morning,
we had to go to chapel service, again at night, chapel service before dinner.
During the day, we went for prayer before and after meals, before and after classes.
The only pleasant time of the day was the afternoon walk around the countryside.
The nuns were very, very strict, the food was terrible.
We ate lots of rutabagas and turnips and things like that.
I was moved from place to place, and none of the moves
brought me anywhere near my mother or father,
and I missed my parents terribly all the time.
I sometimes, you know, cried at night and...
But it was only at night that I could let go
because during the day, I certainly could not cry in front...
let’s say when I was in the Catholic orphanage,
cry in front of the French boys, otherwise they would have asked me why.
And I couldn’t explain.