Editing Lafcadio Hearn (section)

====Emigration to Ireland and abandonment====
[[File:Commemorative plaque to Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), 48 Gardiner Street Lower, Dublin, Ireland. Detail.JPG|thumb|Plaque on Hearn's home on [[Gardiner Street]], [[Dublin]]]]
Hearn's father Charles in 1850 was reassigned from Lefkada to the [[British West Indies]]. Since his family did not approve of the marriage, and because he was worried that his relationship might harm his career prospects, Charles did not inform his superiors of his son or pregnant wife and left his family behind. In 1852, he arranged to send his son and wife to live with his family in [[Dublin]], where they received a cool reception. Charles's Protestant mother, Elizabeth Holmes Hearn, had difficulty accepting Rosa's Greek Orthodox views and lack of education; she was illiterate and spoke no English. Rosa found it difficult to adapt to a foreign culture and the Protestantism of her husband's family, and was eventually taken under the wing of Elizabeth's sister, Sarah Holmes Brenane, a widow who had converted to Catholicism.

Despite Sarah's efforts, Rosa suffered from homesickness. When her husband returned to Ireland on medical leave in 1853, it became clear that the couple had become estranged. Charles Hearn was assigned to the [[Crimean Peninsula]], again leaving his pregnant wife and child in Ireland. When he came back in 1856, severely wounded and traumatized, Rosa had returned to her home island of [[Cerigo]] (Kythera), where she gave birth to their third son, Daniel James Hearn. Lafcadio had been left in the care of Sarah Brenane.

Charles petitioned to have the marriage with Rosa annulled, on the grounds that she had not signed their marriage contract, which made it invalid under English law. After being informed of the annulment, Rosa almost immediately married Giovanni Cavallini, a Greek citizen of Italian ancestry, who was later appointed by the British as governor of [[Cerigotto]] (Antikythera). Cavallini required as a condition of the marriage that Rosa give up custody of both sons. As a result, James was sent to his father in Dublin while Lafcadio remained in the care of his great aunt, Sarah Brenane, who had disinherited Charles because of the annulment. Neither Lafcadio nor James ever again saw their mother, who had four children with her second husband. Rosa was eventually committed to the National Mental Asylum on [[Corfu]], where she died in 1882.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=14–15 |language= |url-access=registration}}</ref>

Charles Hearn, who had left Lafcadio in the care of Sarah Brenane for the past four years, now appointed her as Lafcadio's permanent guardian. He married his childhood sweetheart, Alicia Goslin, in July 1857, and left with his new wife for a posting in [[Secunderabad]], a city in India, where they had three daughters prior to Alicia's death in 1861.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mikXAQAAMAAJ |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |date=1991 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |pages=17 |language=en |quote="(Hearn, who had three daughters with Alicia, died of malaria in the Gulf of Suez on November 21, 1866.)" |url-access=registration}}</ref> Lafcadio never saw his father again: Charles Hearn died of malaria in the [[Gulf of Suez]] in 1866.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=17–18 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 1857, at age seven and despite the fact that both his parents were still alive, Hearn became the permanent [[Ward (law)|ward]] of Sarah Brenane. She divided her residency between Dublin in the winter months, and her husband's estate at [[Tramore]], [[County Waterford]], on the southern Irish coast, and a house at [[Bangor, Gwynedd|Bangor]] in North Wales. Brenane engaged a tutor during the school year to provide Hearn with basic instruction and the rudiments of Catholic dogma. Hearn began exploring Brenane's library and read extensively in Greek literature, especially myths.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cott |first=Jonathan |url=https://archive.org/details/wanderingghostod00cott |title=Wandering Ghost: The Odyssey of Lafcadio Hearn |publisher=Knopf |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-394-57152-2 |edition= |location=New York |pages=18–20 |url-access=registration}}</ref>