Ramsey County History – Spring 2002: “A Memoir: A Temporary Shelter for Six Under 12—St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphan Home”

A Memoir: A Temporary Shelter for Six Under 12—St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphan Home
Author: Janet Postlewaite Sands

The author recalls the family circumstances that brought her and her siblings to St. Joseph’s Orphanage at 1458 Randolph in 1945 and what it was like during her stay there. The six Postlewaite children had to go to the orphanage because of the poor health of their parents. When their mother had a recurrence of scarlet fever, she arranged for them to go to the institution, which was run by Benedictine nuns. She writes of a regimented daily life. They went to school, had to work in the laundry or in the large garden, and helped prepare the food they ate. While they were at the orphanage, their father died. Finally, in spite of the predictions of doctors, their mother recovered, could even walk again, and, in 1947, took her children back.
PDF of Sands article