Personal Narrative: The Hidden Child
The Hidden Child
She was born on a busy summer night on September 13th 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts. I always had the feeling that Rosie was a little different from the rest of us. On the day of her birth the midwife arrived late, and my theory is that this action deprived her brain of oxygen. We were proven right when she failed to advance from kindergarten and was deemed to suffer from intellectual disabilities. When this happened our parents began to conceal their third child from society.
Everyone knew Rosie was a little bit different than her two older brothers. On her eleventh birthday she was sent to a boarding school where she was taught separately by two nuns. By the time she turned 15 she was reading at a fourth grade level. Being her older brother, I knew she wasn't as different as everyone made it sound. Rose went to dances, attended afternoon teas and participated in what we …show more content…
She was growing more and more rebellious and cantankerous as the years passed. Her illness seemed to get worse and visits home became less frequent. For over twenty years her family refused to visit her.At the age of twenty-three the doctors told our father, Joseph, that it would be beneficial if they would perform a lobotomy on her. They claimed that the lobotomy would calm her violent outbursts. A lobotomy is when a doctor scrapes away most of the connections between the prefrontal cortex and the frontal lobes. This procedure was completed without any form of anesthesia or pain killer. Joseph authorized the surgery and Rosemary was carted away to the operating room. She was then strapped to the table and the doctor began to cut into her scalp with what looked like a butter knife. The assistant asked her questions like where she was and what her name was. When she no longer responded they stopped cutting. I thought this was cruel and wrong, but the doctors insisted that it would “fix”
She was born on a busy summer night on September 13th 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts. I always had the feeling that Rosie was a little different from the rest of us. On the day of her birth the midwife arrived late, and my theory is that this action deprived her brain of oxygen. We were proven right when she failed to advance from kindergarten and was deemed to suffer from intellectual disabilities. When this happened our parents began to conceal their third child from society.
Everyone knew Rosie was a little bit different than her two older brothers. On her eleventh birthday she was sent to a boarding school where she was taught separately by two nuns. By the time she turned 15 she was reading at a fourth grade level. Being her older brother, I knew she wasn't as different as everyone made it sound. Rose went to dances, attended afternoon teas and participated in what we …show more content…
She was growing more and more rebellious and cantankerous as the years passed. Her illness seemed to get worse and visits home became less frequent. For over twenty years her family refused to visit her.At the age of twenty-three the doctors told our father, Joseph, that it would be beneficial if they would perform a lobotomy on her. They claimed that the lobotomy would calm her violent outbursts. A lobotomy is when a doctor scrapes away most of the connections between the prefrontal cortex and the frontal lobes. This procedure was completed without any form of anesthesia or pain killer. Joseph authorized the surgery and Rosemary was carted away to the operating room. She was then strapped to the table and the doctor began to cut into her scalp with what looked like a butter knife. The assistant asked her questions like where she was and what her name was. When she no longer responded they stopped cutting. I thought this was cruel and wrong, but the doctors insisted that it would “fix”