Lendle

Growing up in a two-parent home during the Great Depression was certainly no picnic, but living in an orphanage run by dozens of nuns was undoubtedly worse.Just ask Terry Gelormino Silver, the author of Nunzilla Was My Mother and My Stepmother Was a Witch. Terry spent her formative years under the care of so-called pious nuns who acted as if her very existence was a cross to bear. For so many years she kept these memories inside, as if waiting for the proper moment in time to let them out. Well, that time has come, and it is her readers who are the richer for it.Shining with rare insight and vivid descriptions that ably present a world most people can only imagine, this compelling memoir still manages to capture the magic of childhood and the anxiety of adolescence while granting readers a new understanding of an innocent era.The author's experiences in three separate orphanages are examined. In the end, Terry Gelormino Silver arrives at some very interesting conclusions, some of which will surprise even those who know her best!"What I learned living in orphanages was not to snitch on others, how to use cunning to get what I wanted, how to make an angry nun laugh, how to pass time during long and boring religious services or how to avoid them altogether, gratitude for simple pleasures, mental and physical survival skills, how to gain self-esteem in non-traditional ways, and how to bluff my way through tense situations. Even in an Oliver-Twist type of orphanage, kids can manage to have fun and outsmart their caregivers. Although my book tells about some sad or angry moments, it's not a tear-jerker. Read my book, and you may be surprised to find yourself chuckling at times. Kids are irrepressible no matter what their environment." - Terry Silver