AUSTRALIA
The Age
May 21, 2015
Konrad Marshall
Senior writer
Gabrielle Short can conjure no fond memories of this place, the old orphanage once known as the Nazareth House Girls’ Home, once her home.
Sitting opposite Lake Wendouree, the structure is grandiose and beautiful but it seemed swallowed by a sickness in 1963, when Short was just seven.
She points to herself in a photo from that time, on the day of her first communion – that special Catholic sacrament after confession and before confirmation.
She is one of the dozen little girls dressed in white, surrounding a tall man in black, the chaplain and serial paedophile, Gerald Ridsdale.
They stand on green grass, smiling in front of a statue of Joseph and Our Lady and Jesus Christ. If she looks happy, it is because in her tender and “religiously brainwashed” mind the occasion seemed like her wedding day.
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