Shown primarily in the U.S., this P.B.S. show deals with a young girl..and her adult chaperone…traveling from Wichita, Kansas to New York City. It has a dual plot….it turns out that the chaperone was an orphan raised in a Catholic orphanage in New York, and wants to find out who her birth mother was. Reverend Mother dissuaded her…..but we won’t spoil the rest of the story for you.
The fact that the chaperone was an orphan in a Catholic orphanage immediately caught our interest….but we often fear the worst, as the media these days does not always reflect Catholic institutions in a positive light. This was not the case here, though.
The show briefly touched on the fact that the chaperone was sent off by train to live with a family across the country at a young age….but few details were given. That is understandable, since that was not central to the plot.
But you might be interested to know about the “Orphan Trains” and their connection with the New York Foundling Hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity. These sisters helped re-locate thousands of orphans and abandoned children to Catholic families throughout the U.S. in the late 1800’s.
You can read more about the “Orphan Trains” here.
Spoiler alert! Reverend Mother was right in the advice that she gave to the chaperone!
