Magdalene Laundries
15
Only fourteen, Diana entered the gates of the Good Shepherd Laundry in Buffalo, New York with the lable of “incorrigible.” The Laundry, run by Irish Catholic nuns and priests, was a place where young girls aged fourteen to eighteen did penance for their sins.
“I could feel the evil as it descended and began to wrap its arms around me as the scraping sound of the steel gates opening shook the very core of my soul,” Diana says. “My mind just stopped and I could feel myself shift into survival mode.”
The Laundry, surrounded by towering walls of stone topped with barbed wire, was a “holy place meant to save the souls of young girls.” In reality, it was a prison of fear that would forever haunt Diana and the other survivors.
A scary building
A scary building
As she entered the Laundry, a nun silently escorted Diana through endless stone tunnels. With each step she took along the rough cobbled floors, hope slowly drained away.
She finally found herself shoved into a small room with a man wearing a suit, Diana recalls, that looked as if he had slept in it for several days. The man, a doctor, fixed his stare on Diana as she felt her skin begin to crawl. “Well, what do you think, is she a virgin?”
The nun laughed. The doctor only smiled, and as the nun turned and left the room, Diana was thrust into the depths of a new hell as the doctor slowly moved towards her.
She was powerless as the doctor overpowered and raped her.
The walls of the Good Shepherd Laundry were not only a physical prison, but a prison of the soul. Diana endured her suffering alone and in forced silence. Within the walls of the Laundry, talking was allowed only when the nuns clapped their hands.
Violating this rule led to severe punishment.
The Good Shepherd Laundry in Buffalo was comprised of six units, each unit housing thirty girls. Dinner was six girls per table, and during her first night Diana found that nightmares could indeed live outside your dreams.