'It helps us heal': Former resident gives tours at site of one-time orphanage

The room that welcomes people to drop in for a twice-weekly coffee gathering at Veith House is one of the most inviting areas inside the north-end Halifax community hub, but Linda Gray-LeBlanc is uneasy about it.

Gray-LeBlanc and her five siblings spent a considerable amount of time in this room back in 1957 when it was the quarantine room at the Halifax Protestant Orphanage.

"That was stop No. 1. You were taken from your parents and placed in a prison cell. That's how I felt," she said.

Gray-LeBlanc is giving tours of Veith House this weekend as part of the 5th annual Doors Open Halifax, an event where the public gets free access to participating sites around the city.

Quarantine room

The quarantine room was where children were taken when they first arrived at the orphanage and "that was to make sure you had no childhood diseases, no head lice and stuff like that," said Gray-Leblanc.

She said orphans spent two weeks in the room and could not leave. The doors were locked, so children ate, slept, played and used the bathroom in the room.

The room was kept dark and to this day, Gray-LeBlanc said she needs to keep her blinds open.

"I panic, you know, I scream 'Don't close the curtains' — I still have a lot of panic attacks ... and a lot of it comes from this room," she told a group of people touring Veith House Saturday afternoon.

Gray-LeBlanc lived at the Halifax Protestant Orphanage for a year and a half beginning when she was eight. After she left, she was placed in a foster home.

She later wrote a book about her experience, I Was Called "That Foster Kid" — The True Story of a Foster Child.

The original Halifax Protestant Orphanage was built in 1857, but was destroyed in the Halifax Explosion in 1917. The replacement was built in 1925 and the orphanage shut down in 1970.

Some of the original fixtures from her time as a orphan are still in the building, such as the fireplace in what was the quarantine room, as well old wash basins in the bathrooms.

'You've got to face your fears'

Gray-LeBlanc said it's hard giving tours.

"It's emotional. I break down. It brings back a lot of memories, a lot of flashes, but it's like I told my doctor, you've got to face your fears," she said.

Gray-LeBlanc worked at the orphanage as a matron in 1967. She then went on to work at Veith House in the 1980s and now she does tours.

During some of the tours she's done on and off over the past five years, Gray-LeBlanc has met other orphans who stayed there at different times and shared stories. She said one of them fainted at the site of the quarantine room during a tour last year.

'Helps us heal'

"It makes you know that what your memories are, are not false. That everybody that I've run into has pretty well the same story. The abuse that went on there, the punishments, they're all true," she said.

"A lot of people never knew this was an orphanage, even today people don't know this was an orphanage. And to tell our stories, our stories need to be told. It helps us heal."

Gail Gardiner, the executive director of Veith House, said people stopping by the building for Doors Open Halifax find the history of the building interesting.

"The fact that we've repurposed Veith House into a community hub where people are welcome and can come in and partake in our programs and our services, it's a nice transition," said Gardiner.