Of all the characters in my books, Mary Catherine Parsons is one of my all-time favorites.  Abandoned on the steps of a New York City Convent, when she was two months old, she was raised in the orphanage. Unadopted and nearing the maximum age for the Foundling Home, Mary Catherine is given a choice by the mother superior, and decides to take the orphan train looking for a future. Unadopted, she reached Helena, Montana where she worked in a Catholic Hospital for her room and board. She was hired and adopted by the Parsons family. She got her first taste of what a family should be like.
Read about Mary Catherine here: On A Train bound for Nowhere.