When I was a child I was placed in foster care, and childrens' homes off and on all through my childhood.. Not because I did anything wrong, but the fact that my parents were dysfunctional and my mother was often too ill to care for me...and also through lack of nutrition I was often poorly and had to be hospitalised. During the times that I was in these foster homes, I rarely ever had a visit from my parents.... However your story Bill... remind me of the very first time I was in a convalescent home after being cured of pneumonia... believe it or not I was just 2 years old.. and I have very clear memories of this I didn't know I was in recovery from an illness at the time , no-one told me, I have no recollection of being ill, just the convalescent home so I just thought I'd been abandoned by my parents.. There was a large garden where I was allowed to play out with a big Oak tree at the bottom with a long rope swing attached. Tree and swing were right next to a high brick wall, and beyond the wall was a train line which sat above the wall so we could clearly see the Steam train as it sped past. I was desperately lonely for my mother, and for some unknown reason I'd got it into my head that she would come and visit me by train, so every time I'd hear the train chugging along I would run down to the swing and sit there and as it passed I would wave to it thinking if my mum was on the train she would see me and wave back , and see that I was being a good girl and she would come and visit me... she never was on the train...
@Holly Saunders Thank you Holly for your comments. Yours is such a sad and good story. It makes us aware of the human condition, how fragile and lonely we can be and I'll tell you this, it adds greatly to my own story, adding some shade of meaning that did not exist.