The opening notes of Brahms’ “Lullaby” unlocked a memory Pat Schulte did not know she still carried.

Schulte was 55 and working with young children in the Riverside Unified School District’s teen parent program when staff played the familiar melody at naptime. Suddenly, she was 4 years old again, lying down for a nap at the former David & Margaret Home in La Verne.

“It was like a bolt of lightning hit me,” Schulte said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s what they played at the orphanage when we had to take a nap.’”

Now 90, the Riverside resident remembers little else firsthand about the year she spent at the children’s home more than eight decades ago. She has pieced together parts of the experience through photographs, institutional records and conversations with her older sister, Marilyn.

“After you have so much water under your bridge, it all washes away,” Schulte said.

The siblings arrived at the home in June 1940 and left in July 1941, according to records Schulte obtained from the organization. At the time, the facility was commonly described as an orphanage. Today, the nonprofit known as David & Margaret Youth and Family Services provides housing, mental health care and other programs for children, young adults and families.

The property’s history as a children’s home dates to the late 19th century. According to information on the David & Margaret website, First Bank President Henry Kuns began building the La Verne Hotel in 1892 and later donated it to the Women’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Church for use as the area’s first orphanage.

After the hotel fell into disrepair, Kuns donated land and money for a safer facility. Completed in 1925, the new structure is now known as the Whitney Building. Schulte and her siblings lived there from 1940 to 1941. Beginning in 1964, young residents moved out of the Whitney Building and into residential cottages constructed on the property.

Schulte was born in August 1935 and grew up in Brawley, near the U.S.-Mexico border. Her mother died in November 1939, leaving Schulte’s father to care for three young children. He was a carpenter and had to continue working.

Schulte’s older brother and sister initially went to live with relatives, while Schulte remained in Brawley with her father and stayed with his friends. The three children were later reunited and placed at David & Margaret.

Schulte does not know exactly why the family chose the La Verne home or whether her father had lost custody. She suspects its location may have played a role because he had moved to Riverside for work.

“He was 49 when I was born,” Schulte said.

By the time he became a widower, he was in his early 50s with children ages 3, 5 and 9. Other relatives were unable to take all three children, she said.

Years later, records showing that two of her aunts had signed the siblings into the home left Schulte angry.

“I don’t lose my temper very often, but I was furious,” she said.

A conversation with her older half-sister helped Schulte understand the circumstances differently. One aunt was already raising three grandchildren, and another ran a hotel that wasn't considered an appropriate place for young children.

Schulte also came to see the decision within the economic and historical circumstances surrounding her family.

“It was the war,” she said. “You’re in the middle of World War II. That was a whole different era. Financially, I can understand it.”

Holding on to resentment, she decided, would not change what happened.

“You can spend your whole life holding on to grudges,” Schulte said. “We were poor, and I don’t remember ever feeling poor.”

Still, the documents could not tell Schulte what daily life felt like for the 3-year-old who entered the home or the 4-year-old who left it.

She remembers being placed in the nursery, apart from her older siblings. As a young child, she struggled to pronounce their names: Her brother Bill became “Butter,” and Marilyn became “Minnie.”

Marilyn has more memories of the home. She told Schulte she tried to visit her younger sister but was not allowed because the older girls and younger children lived separately. Boys and girls also remained apart, even on the playground.

According to Marilyn’s recollections, the girls ate at long communal tables. If they played with their feet under the table, they had to stand and kick a wall.

The children did not have individual wardrobes. Clothing went into a shared closet, and each morning they selected whatever fit. Marilyn remembered a relative sending her a fancy pink dress, but she never saw it again.

Marilyn also recalled riding a bus to church and seeing their father, older half-sister, and an uncle when they visited. Schulte has photographs from at least one of her father’s visits, including an image of the three siblings together.

“This is when my father came to the orphanage to visit us,” Schulte said as she shared the photograph.

Her brother had a more dramatic experience. He once ran away from the home with another boy and made it into town before someone brought him back, according to Marilyn.

“He was a handful,” Schulte said.

Schulte remembers none of those visits or adventures. She was simply too young, she said. But Brahms’ “Lullaby” remained tucked away somewhere in her memory until she heard it again more than 50 years later.

After leaving the home, the siblings moved to Riverside, where their father had found work. They initially lived with family friends before he built a house and brought the children home.

Schulte has no memory of the drive away from David & Margaret or of the La Verne community surrounding it. She imagines that one thing eclipsed everything else that day.

“I suppose once we got in the car with my dad to leave, the important thing was being with him,” she said.

Marilyn took on many of the responsibilities their mother otherwise might have carried.

“She was kind of my mother for many years,” Schulte said.

Schulte remained with her father until she married at 18. She and her husband raised five children on citrus acreage in Riverside, where the family grew oranges, avocados and, later, Fuyu persimmons.

She now has 10 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. Looking back, Schulte said she recognizes more clearly what she lost when her mother died.

“I think as I’ve gotten older, I realized how much I missed out not having a mother,” she said. “I didn’t get a lot of the mothering traits. I mean, I love my kids, and I think they love me, but I just kind of bumbled along.”

Schulte said she may have compensated by “smother-loving” her children a little. The family worked together in the groves, including staying up through freezing nights to light smudge pots intended to protect the citrus trees.

The property eventually evolved from citrus and avocados to hundreds of persimmon trees. The family has harvested thousands of pounds of fruit in a season, much of it sold from the property through an honor system.

Schulte also spent 7½ years working with babies and toddlers in the school district program—the job that unexpectedly reconnected her with her earliest memory of La Verne.

Despite the losses and uncertainty that shaped her childhood, Schulte describes her life as fortunate. Her children have built successful lives, generations of family members continue to gather at her Riverside home and longtime friendships still anchor her.

“I often think about how lucky we were,” she said.

Schulte has returned to the David & Margaret campus twice as an adult. During one visit, she remembered where the nursery had been, although she could not enter the room. The building is now used as offices, and secured doors prevented her from exploring much of it.

The entrance hall triggered fragments of memories, she said. She also remembered the former basement dining area and the large lion statues that once stood on either side of the front steps.

“I was glad to see that the building is still there and survived me and many others,” Schulte said. “I’m glad I went to visit.”

The visit also introduced her to the community she could not recall from childhood.

“It’s been a really nice nostalgia trip for me,” she said. “I remembered nothing about the town, and it’s a lovely little town.”

Schulte hopes to return to La Verne again, see more of the historic property and continue exploring the chapter of her childhood that remains mostly beyond her memory.

“We survived it all,” she said. “It’s been a good life. I can’t complain.”