Anonymous wrote:Yeah, that is was pretty awful. And it sort of puts the whole obsession with not having premarital sex in perspective. The consequences for those girls was just so dire--you can't blame a Mrs H for doing everything in her power to prevent it.
My grandmother's best friend got pregnant out of wedlock in the 1920's--the father was a good guy (actually a good friend of my grandfathers), and they got married, but both their parents disowned them. My grandfather went out on a limb and managed to get the guy a job in another state, and my grandmother basically went to friends and relatives to beg starter furniture and baby clothes for them (after trying to talk her friend's mom into forgiving her). The story had a basically happy ending, but it could have been not good.
If you read histories of orphanages in that time period, most of the kids were not orphans. They were just kids whose mothers couldn't keep them....and sometimes the moms would come back for them when they could, or not. Very sad, and everyone should remember that history when they complain about welfare. Welfare was designed to let those mothers keep their kids.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What did Mary overhear about Marigold as Lord G was getting into the ambulance. Cora whispered something that Mary overheard, and then Mary asked Anna what she knew -- but I couldn't hear what Cora said.
Let's have no more secrets!
You mean, about Marigold?
Yes...blah blah enough of that! Grrr...
[Mary in the shadows, all like WTF?]
Anonymous wrote:What did Mary overhear about Marigold as Lord G was getting into the ambulance. Cora whispered something that Mary overheard, and then Mary asked Anna what she knew -- but I couldn't hear what Cora said.
Anonymous wrote:Yuck!!! Can that really happen with bleeding ulcers?
Anonymous wrote:Lord Grantham--always the drama queen.
Anonymous wrote:and the other thing is they have that cap on and wear the same clothes. And Edna and Ethel? jeepers, no wonder we can't keep it straight.
What happened to Ethel and the baby--didn't Isobel get involved and rescue her?
/quote]
I think Ethel was eventually taken in by the baby's grandparents along with the baby. I don't think she worried at the time about getting pregnant b/c she thought the guy was going to marry her.