A Pottsville native recently published her memoirs that includes a chapter on her two years at the former St. Francis Orphan Asylum near Orwigsburg, a story that was not pleasant for her and her siblings.

Those negative experiences of Beverly Stauffer, now Julie D. Swope, 64, of York, led her to become a licensed psychologist and opened a practice in 1983, expanding it in 2004 as Yorktowne Psychological and Addiction Services.

Swope's book, "Of Roots and Wings," was published in November and available through Amazon.com. Despite her negative experiences at the orphanage and her adopted home, Swope tells a message of hope in her book, that "even when you are born into a family ensnarled in tangly, twisted roots, you can still find your wings. You can take flight and bring future generations with you."

Swope is a happy person, and exhibited that happiness in a telephone interview with her. The book's first chapter is called "The Orphanage," which tells of the rough existence at the institution operated by the Sisters of St. Francis, a religious order based in Philadelphia, and according to Swope, the children were subjected to verbal and physical abuse.

"My father (Alvin Stauffer) was alcoholic and very abusive, and my mother (Blanche Stauffer) was mentally unfit to take care of us," Swope said. "There were eight of us at that time. The court system stepped in and there was a hearing in juvenile court by Judge Dalton, who signed an order (on Dec. 20, 1949) that sent all of us to the orphanage. That's where my story begins."

Swope was 23 months old when she entered the orphanage.

"We were all Protestants and the orphanage was Catholic. In an effort to keep all of us together, we were all sent there," Swope said. "However, there was a lot of abuse by the nuns, such as being called 'heathens' each and every day, and we were used as examples of discipline to the other children in the orphanage. The sisters really didn't believe that we should be there because we were Protestant."

She added, "My brothers and sisters remember the punishments and I also remember some of them. I remember the cold showers and kids being hit, even with the rosary beads, and the chores and being locked in closets. There is another person who has written about his experiences at the orphanage. Discipline was pretty harsh."

Swope was in the orphanage for about two years, when she and younger sister, Georgina, were adopted by Dr. Joseph A. and Kathleen DiMedio in Chelsea, Delaware County, and renamed Julia DiMedio. She said her adopted father was a native of Minersville and had come back to adopt children from his home county.

About six months later, the couple also adopted her sister, Nancy. The oldest sister, Connie, was adopted by an aunt. The four boys were not adopted and were eventually sent to the Quincy Home for Boys in Muncy. Swope said when the children were placed in the orphanage, her mother was pregnant, and when that baby was born, it was adopted immediately. She is not aware of what happened to that sibling.

"The story goes into some of my life after being adopted but it also gets to a place where all my brothers and sisters who did not grow up with each other got back together again," Swope said. "That's when I found out what happened to my brothers and sisters over the years, and heard a lot of stories about my mother and father and what their lives were like before going to the orphanage."

When she turned 16, she filled out her driver's permit with the name "Julie," which became her legal name. She attended Pennsylvania State University from 1965 to 1970, majoring in elementary education. She married her high school sweetheart in 1966 and was divorced in 1973. She taught at an elementary school while earning her master's degree in education from Shippensburg University, and afterward earned her school psychology certification at Millersville University. She married in 1977 and divorced 11 years later. She earned her clinical psychology credits at Johns Hopkins University and became a licensed psychologist in 1983, the year she founded Yorktowne Psychological Services, which became Yorktowne Psychological and Addiction Services.

Swope said it was her childhood experiences at the orphanage and in her adopted home that caused her to enter psychology to help others and learn more about herself.

"It is a helping profession and I've worked a lot in my practice with children and with adoption," Swope said. "I think I was also led into wanting to learn a lot more about myself. A lot of us who go into psychology have to go into our own analysis. A lot of the stuff that I took as normal while growing up was brought to my attention that it was not normal."

Swope believes her book has a positive focus.

"The book is one of hope and cope - hope for what you want but cope with what you have," she said. "You can go through all kinds of terrible experiences in life but you still make choices as you get older. It's more of a survival mentality in the book rather than that of a victim mentality. People need to know that they are not alone and there is help out there."

Swope has raised six children, five of whom were adopted. She lives with two dogs, Happy and Lucky, and with a cat, Lovey, which she said allows Swope and the dogs to reside with her. Her personal times includes playing the harp, gardening, worldwide travel, photography and spending time with family and friends.

Swope is still improving herself, which in life should be a never-ending process.

"My mother described me as a 'diamond in the rough,' " Swope writes on her website. "She wanted to send me to finishing school; that didn't happen. I remain unfinished."