Sadie Williams, 64, spent a total of four years in two different convent
laundries. She was 14 when she was virtually kidnapped by two women who
had determined that she was "in moral danger." Williams liked to take a
walk in the evenings, after working all day at a bed and breakfast in
Dublin. She said the women considered her much too attractive to stay
out of trouble.
She was only 14 when she ended up in a convent laundry outside town as "Number 100," and locked into a cell each night. She says she almost never saw daylight. "Oh, it was dreadful," she said. "I cried and cried all the time, and kept asking why, why wasn't I getting out. And I would write begging letters to my mother. When I finally got out, she was already dead and buried three years. But I was never told, even though I was writing, still writing letters to her."
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-195697.html
She was only 14 when she ended up in a convent laundry outside town as "Number 100," and locked into a cell each night. She says she almost never saw daylight. "Oh, it was dreadful," she said. "I cried and cried all the time, and kept asking why, why wasn't I getting out. And I would write begging letters to my mother. When I finally got out, she was already dead and buried three years. But I was never told, even though I was writing, still writing letters to her."
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-195697.html