I was born in Cowbridge in 1940 and moved to Canada when I was eight years old with my parents and brothers.

My mother, Christina Watkins nee Morgan, was an orphan, and was raised in Ely Children's Homes from about 1916 when she was three years old until she was put out to service as a ladies' maid around 1930.

Her experience in the orphanage coloured her whole life. Her personal narrative included many stories about the harsh conditions in the orphanage.

She told of washing floors on her hands and knees at the age of three, and cooking for the entire household of girls and matron by the age of six.

For even a minor infraction such as 'stealing' a piece of bread and jam because she was hungry she would be beaten black and blue with a hairbrush and locked up for hours in a dark closet to repent her 'sins'.

If she soiled herself while she was in there because there were no toilet facilities, she would be beaten black and blue again.

These harsh conditions never broke her Herculean spirit - she survived to be a cheerful soul and always said she could never understand how her mother could have abandoned her in St David's Hospital (then the City Lodge, I believe). She could never have deserted any of her own three children.

Despite these early experiences my mother loved Cardiff - it was her favourite place on earth and I was fortunate to be able to visit there with her on several occasions.

Now I would like to get the Ely Homes records but they are sealed for 100 years! I'll be dead myself before they are accessible. I wish this outdated law would be changed. Surely her family has a right to know.

Sylvia Baago, Dain City, Ontario, Canada - 2008

PS The first photo is of my Mum in her uniform when she was the head cook for the prep school at Upper Canada College in Toronto. She worked there as head cook for 13 years before she retired in 1980.

She always loved to cook (perhaps from those early experiences) and she always loved children, so immensely enjoyed making delicious meals for about 175 boys aged 7 to 14, three times a day. The boys looked very kindly on "Chris the Cook" as they called her - she always manged to sneak them treats! She was only 4 feet 11 inches tall and I think some of the pots she used for cooking at the prep school were taller.

The second picture is of my Mum with one of my grandsons (Phillip) when he was about two years old. She was retired but she still loved to wear her cook's uniform, as you can see.

My mother began a 15-year journey with Alzheimer's disease in 1980, the year she retired. She died in 1995.