Growing Myself Up

"I don't wish my children to be adopted out to anyone at all." Regina Fox Dodge's mother wrote these words to her oldest daughter shortly after Regina was born. Two years later, the 43-year-old mother died, leaving her husband with eight children to raise during the Great Depression. The mother's plan was carried out shortly after she died. Regina's 19-year-old brother and 16-year-old sister took the four younger sisters, Marjorie, age 11, Ruth Elaine, age 8, Virginia, age 4, and Regina, age 2, to a Catholic orphanage in Pueblo, Colorado. Regina details life at the orphanage where a tender touch was not allowed but spanking was an art.