Elspeth Ross’s story (27 February) about her experiences in 1962 in Cleveden House, a Mother and Baby Home run by the Salvation Army in Glasgow, was not unusual for many unmarried mothers then. She spoke of sleeping in a “horrible and dull” dormitory room at the home. Chores loomed large and every morning for three months, she was down on her knees washing the home’s grand cantilevered staircase. Others worked in the laundry. Six weeks after her son was born, she was told to leave – without her son, who was then adopted.