Update: Paternal grandparents with all six kids (plus a neighbor’s kid) 10 years later ~1954

Update: My paternal grandparents with all six children (plus a neighbor’s kid) ~10 years later in 1954

My grandmother would have been around 26 here. My grandfather would have been about 40.

This was shortly before all the kids were placed in a Catholic orphanage for a year or two while my grandmother worked on divorcing from grandfather and moving to Holland from Java.

As adults, the siblings never liked talking about their time in the orphanage. My dad always alluded to being abused by the priests and nuns, but refused to elaborate.

My dad told me stories of my grandfather forcing him and his brothers to fist-fight for entertainment. Or throwing a stray cat to pack of stray dogs. I can’t imagine he treated my grandmother any better.

Four years after this photo my grandfather had a massive heart attack. The kids were told it was my grandmother’s fault since he died of “a broken heart” after she left with all the kids.

Even though I heard that story when I was a child, I scoffed at the “died of a broken heart” bit.