[Section opener]
Meg
July 1933
Chapter 1
Welcome to
The Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls
Founded 1927
We do NOT accept:
Coloreds, Indians, Jews, Mexicans, Oriental types, Twins, Anyone who has or has had Leprosy,
Consumption, Missing Limbs, or Harelip.
No Boys. No Sick Children or anyone of a Retarded Nature.
No Girls Over the age of twelve.
No Women in the Family Way. We do not deliver Babies here.
May the Lord bless you all.
When I was first brought here to the Orphan, I used to put a pretend play on in my head. In it, my
mama would walk in and say, Margot! I have returned! I am here to take you home! I would
have her dressed in the yellow outfit she left me in with the red rickrack on the collar, or a
snappy slim blue number cut on the bias, her good ruby hair comb fixed to her hair. When I got
her dressed up the way I liked with all the things matched perfect, she would lean down and say,
I am so sorry I left you, Meg.
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