Blanche Moonier, a French socialite born in in 1849,
Beautiful and desired by many suitors,
She wanted to marry a penniless lawyer.
Her parents objected.
But Blanche was determined
To marry her love.
Her parents locked her away in a tiny room
To try to persuade her to give up her love.
Blenche refused and was kept in the room
With no light. No bath. Nor a washroom.
Her family kept her there for 25 years
Long after her lawyer love had died.
When the police were notified of her imprisonment,
They found her living in her own feces and in filth
In the tiny, lightless room with bugs and an odious smell,
Her mind damaged by the years of isolation,
Her body emaciated like a barely living skeleton.
After her rescue, she spent her final years
in a psychiatric hospital with many psychological disorders,
And died at age 64 in the hospital, a broken, pitiful woman
Never healed of her many mental health problems.
Bob Boyd