Thread by @windthin

1/12 For centuries, when the powerful and the wealthy wanted somebody to go away but didn't want the scandal or trouble of killing them, they would have them locked up or sent away instead, in convents and asylums and institutions.

Such was the fate of Elsie Maria Kingdon.

2/12 Born in Bristol, U.K. in 1877, she was married to Elias James Leach in 1898. Their first child died very young, leaving Elsie overcome with depression while Elias took to drink. Finally, on a doctor's advice, they tried and succeeded in having a second child, 4 years later.

3/12 Elsie suffered from clinical depression. Like so many, she worked to hide it, to live day to day however she might. With her relationship with Elias still strained, she focused on their son, teaching him to dance, getting him piano lessons, and taking him to early cinema.

4/12 In 1915, Elias placed Elsie in the Bristol Lunatic Asylum (now Glenside Hospital). Her 9-year-son was told at first she'd gone away on a "long holiday." In truth, Elias wanted to take up with another woman, & a year later he told their son Elsie had died before re-marrying.

5/12 She remained there for the next 22 years, shuffled away and forgotten.

Only in 1935 did she finally gain her freedom. On his deathbed, Elias confessed to his son that Elsie was alive. Her son immediately moved to free her, looking after her for the rest of her life.

6/12 Elsie Maria Kingdon was the mother of Archibald Alec Leach, more famously known as the actor Cary Grant.

After he believed his mother abandoned him, Cary Grant suffered "a sadness of spirit that affected everything I did. I always felt that my mother rejected me."

7/12 This sadness, and the anger that came with it, affected how he related with women. Despite his efforts to re-connect with his mother, they were never as close after as they had been before.

8/12 In the 1950s, wildly successful but unhappy, Grant sought professional help to cope with the lingering emotions over his traumatic childhood. In particular, his failed marriages (he would have five wives total, 3 by this point) weighed on him.

9/12 With the aid of Dr. Mortimer Hartman, he determined he'd been engaged in a cycle of self-sabotage due to the trauma of his mother's disappearance. Though he found a measure of acceptance and peace, he'd go on to have two more marriages.

10/12 Grant found his greatest joy in his daughter, Jennifer Grant, his only child, born in 1966 during his fourth marriage. He was a doting father, retiring to focus all of his attention on her.

11/12 Elsie died in 1973, at the age of 96. Her son died in 1986 at the age of 82. Two lives, deeply harmed by the selfishness of one man.

This scenario has played out time and time again. All too often, those "sent away" die in an institution, forgotten.

Most are women.

12/12 This is the legacy Donald Trump wants to revive.

Locking people away who are "inconvenient" or "troublesome" or "strange" or "ill".

How many of us will that be?