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“I was a bit of a dumb cluck in the film,” the real Philomena says, chuckling. “Some of those things I didn’t say. But it had to bring a bit of laughter into it. Because it’s so sad, you know.”
Even today, there’s a lingering stigma about women who choose to place their children for adoption. Unnatural, people say, and jump to conclusions about the woman’s lifestyle, character and state of mind.
If times have changed, it’s only in that the stigma used to attach unilaterally to unwed mothers. And that stigma was strong enough to keep Philomena Lee silent for 50 years.
The world now knows about Philomena Lee. In 2009, journalist Martin Sixsmith published a book about the son whom she bore in an Irish convent, and whom the nuns tore from her when he was 3 years old and sent off to America with a new set of adoptive parents.
In 2013, the book became the basis for a film starring Judi Dench, who has been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for playing the role of Philomena — more or less. Continue reading.
Source: Washington Post
Image: Vatican Insider
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