Dandelion Child is a work of fiction – a work that depicts life at another time, my version of a picture of history. Eden Davies and her fellow housemates are examples of a thousand different stories of abuse, neglect, and poverty. There was nothing pretty about slum living in nineteenth-century London. History books paint a bleak picture of living conditions on the streets and in the workhouses.
A historical figure, Maria Rye was born in 1829 to solicitor Edmund Rye and his wife Maria Tuppen, as the oldest of nine children. A well-known activist and social reformer in her time, she initially devoted her life to women’s rights, and later, under the influence of Lord Shaftesbury, became a pioneer in the emigration of children to Canada. With the help of her sister Elizabeth Rye and secretary Lizzie Stills, she opened the Peckham Home for Little Girls in 1867 and later the Western Home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada. The home in Britain housed up to eighty girls at a time, where they were trained and prepared for life in Canada. The work was overseen by the Board of Guardians. Conflict arose within the British Government over the Home Child Program and Mr. Andrew Doyle was commissioned to inspect the placement and subsequent care of the children placed in Canada. His condemning report brought the work of Miss Rye into question. Through a variety of organizations, the British Home Child program ran intermittently from 1869 to 1967 and emigrated over a hundred thousand children.
The village of Paisley Corners and its community of eccentric characters is a figment of imagination but typical of a small farming community the likes of which these immigrant girls would have found themselves living in. The contrast between the slum life of London and the open country of Canada must have been stark. Rural Canadian community was knit close together with church and business at the core of their identity. Immigrating and establishing roots in a new country is difficult under the best of circumstances. The emotional trauma experienced by many of these children would have compounded their challenges. And yet, as so often is proven in a study of history, two small words, ‘but God’, remind us that overall, events of history and the path our lives follow, God orchestrates all things in the working of His sovereign plan. Reflecting on the stories we find of those who have gone before us, should serve as a warning perhaps, but also a reminder: ‘God’s purposes shall ripen fast, unfolding every hour.’
