Tuesday 29th

Out and about fairly early this morning, dropping the flowers off at the hospital.   Since my shoulder problems I am finding everything heavy to hold, even the church hymnal, and the vase of flowers for the chapel.  Fortunately there is a golf buggy riding round the hospital car park, picking up those who can't walk far, or have heavy loads, like vases.

I decided afterwards to treat myself at IHOP - the International House of Pancakes - and had some blueberry pancakes.

I found a book in the dollar store the other day and have been avidly reading it today.  About a young Cuban lad who - with1400 other Cuban children - was airlifted out of Cuba in 1962 when he was 12, under a plan which for a time was kept secret from the Cuban government as well as the American public.   It amazed me that even Fr Clark - who thinks that Castro is the cats meow, and is very well up in anything to do with Cuba - didn't even know anything about it.

Some of the parents who sent their children away were underground fighters seeking to topple  Castro's government, which took power in January 1959. Others feared that Castro, who had closed all Catholic schools and confiscated church property, planned to indoctrinate children in special schools. And other parents simply thought that having children living in the United States would guarantee them a quick visa later.

Known as Operation Pedro Pan,  it is the largest child rescue ever recorded in the Western hemisphere. The family separations were meant to last only a few months--whenever the parents obtained visas to travel to the United States or Castro was ousted - as many Cubans at the time expected. But the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 abruptly ended flights to and from the island, leaving the children stranded on the other side of the Straits of Florida.

The author settled very happily with foster parents and he loved the US.   His brother was also in a good home three miles away.   The foster parents expected that they would just have the children for a few months, but then came the Cuban Missile Crisis and all flights to and from Cuba ceased.   Even today people are only just being allowed to visit on special visas.

The author and his brother were removed immediately from the foster parents and sent to a very, very rough orphanage run by a Cuban.    And that is where I am at in the book.