I think that this facility was a strange way to hold alot of people thay had absolutely nothing wrong with them they were just people like you and me. They just had the slightest thing wrong with them
I just want to clarify some of your comments here. The Lapeer State Home was NOT a good place to live. The residents were terribly abused and neglected. My mother & her 5 siblings were residents there. In 1947, my grandfather died in a house fire. My grandmother had a nervous breakdown & was sent to one of the state hospitals (not sure which one). The kids were sent to Lapeer. They ranged in age from 2-19. Luckily, they were all able to leave when they reached adulthood, but not without some lifelong scars. My uncle, because of the years of molesting he suffered at the home, became a pedifile & passed away while serving 2 life sentences in prison a few years back. A couple of my aunts also had lasting memories that effected them for life. Amazingly, my mother seemed to come through it very well somehow. My aunt told us that they threw away her doll that her father gave her & often took the children's glasses so that they could not see as well & could be deamed "mentally defective". They even kept siblings away from each other in fear that they would team up & try to escape. They could sterilized anyone they decided had any kind of handicap (for the better good of society) & even used residents for medical experimentation & research! Can you imagine the life they lived there?? Children... scared, alone, abused & the last memories of their families, many times being something tragic that landed them there in the first place!! As for the cemetery, there is also a mass grave that they used, which is one reason many of them do not have markers.
I'd like to know more, I'm doing research about Lapeer State Home and I'd like to know more about this. I couldn't find much details anywhere and just knowing some of your family went here surprises me.
I just want to clarify some of your comments here. The Lapeer State Home was NOT a good place to live. The residents were terribly abused and neglected. My mother & her 5 siblings were residents there. In 1947, my grandfather died in a house fire. My grandmother had a nervous breakdown & was sent to one of the state hospitals (not sure which one). The kids were sent to Lapeer. They ranged in age from 2-19. Luckily, they were all able to leave when they reached adulthood, but not without some lifelong scars. My uncle, because of the years of molesting he suffered at the home, became a pedifile & passed away while serving 2 life sentences in prison a few years back. A couple of my aunts also had lasting memories that effected them for life. Amazingly, my mother seemed to come through it very well somehow. My aunt told us that they threw away her doll that her father gave her & often took the children's glasses so that they could not see as well & could be deamed "mentally defective". They even kept siblings away from each other in fear that they would team up & try to escape. They could sterilized anyone they decided had any kind of handicap (for the better good of society) & even used residents for medical experimentation & research! Can you imagine the life they lived there?? Children... scared, alone, abused & the last memories of their families, many times being something tragic that landed them there in the first place!! As for the cemetery, there is also a mass grave that they used, which is one reason many of them do not have markers.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know more, I'm doing research about Lapeer State Home and I'd like to know more about this. I couldn't find much details anywhere and just knowing some of your family went here surprises me.
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