‘It was Christmas, when I was still young and have not moved to Melbourne yet, snow had engulfed the whole city and the temperature dropped to negative 84°F, so that even Professor Mansell could not stand it anymore and had cancelled our morning walk. That did not make the sleeping hours longer, however, we still had to get up at four in the morning, and the water for washing was still icy cold, the towels still offered no comforts and the bread from the food cart and in the plates were still stony; interestingly, the wooden tables somehow managed to be so dump that a few brownish fungi had grown upon them. They, too, were unhealthy and malnourished. The only thing that was different that frozen morning was instead of ambling in the knee-high snow and having numb body parts, we have to kneel in the dimly lit rooms to paint, I was in the drawing room. Each of us was given a brush and some whitewash, “as a welcoming gift with our truest hearts to St. Nicholas and our Lord,” was what Professor Mansell announced, we have to repaint the huge place on our knees until the first ray of sunshine beamed into the clock tower.

‘Our spirits were low, it was impossible for the Sun to shine through that thick blanket of his that morning, and besides, the floor was double as cold as the snow in the yard. No one spoke, expect for the occasional soft coughs that were hastily muffled away. The teachers stood against the walls and stared with unfeeling eyes at the thin, unhealthy girls dressed in the same grey dresses and white aprons, kneeling and painting. We used to have eighty-five girls at St. Helena, but little Tina died two months ago then, of fever; Susann was not as lucky, she could have went to Heaven as well but the doctors kept forcing her to take all those potion that she lost all her senses and eventually was sent away, they said she was insane and never recovered from it. Marie managed to receive a job offered by the Dudeys; Lady Dudey was a duchess and widowed for three years, she had four children and Marie was supposed to be their governess.

‘Marie was my closest friend, we had a hard time parting each other but I was very glad that she had escaped that orphanage in one piece. We promised to write to each other as often as possible.