Earlene Carson was 7 years old when she first came to Sunnybrook in the late 1960s.
She, along with her twin sister and eight other siblings, were sent to Sunnybrook by the state of Mississippi while their parents worked on improving their home life.
The children ranged in age from 16 down to an infant.
“We were very poor, there was no running water, no bathrooms in the house, and no electricity. So the courts took us away,” she recalled, adding that her parents struggled with alcohol and physically fighting with each other.
“We lived in a one-room shack that had no furniture, and we slept in the den. There were two beds in there and my dad built a wood stove out of an oil drum and that is how we kept warm and there were 10 of us in a bed; five at the head and five at the foot.”
Sunnybrook Provides a Better Life and an Introduction to God
She said Sunnybrook was selected by the state for its unique ability to take all of the children, so they could stay together. So they moved to North Street in Jackson, to live in the home where Sunnybrook began its ministry in 1964.
“It was a beautiful white house with a porch on the front in a neighborhood with sidewalks,” she said.
Earlene said she thought they had moved into a mansion because the home had running water, electricity, plenty of bedrooms and her room had double doors.
“I think it was a parlor in the early days and it had double doors with glass pane, and that is what amazed me,” she said. “I had never seen anything like it, and it was just beautiful.”
She said they felt welcome and accepted by the houseparents.
“They were wonderful, they were always so good to us,” she said.
Earlene said moving to Sunnybrook changed her life in more ways than one, including introducing her to God.
“I mean, it saved my life. I really had felt like something was watching over me, or something like that – we didn’t know a thing about God. Sunnybrook taught us all of that and so I realized, ‘My goodness, He’s taking care of us.’ There were so many times we should have been dead,” she said. “So yeah, Sunnybrook just saved us. I learned who the Lord was and I kept to that.”
Returning Home with Hope
Earlene said she and her siblings lived at Sunnybrook for a few years before they went back to their parents, who had shown they could take care of their children. But it was short-lived.
Eventually, the situation turned bad again and her parents were told the state would take the kids again, so they decided to run. They ran for two years before the state found them again.
“They’d get wind that they were coming to get us kids and the family would get up in the middle of the night and leave. We’d leave all we had and move to another state until things calmed down,” Earlene said, adding that during this time they lived in Florida, Missouri and Michigan.
Looking back now, she laughs at the situation, “It was the funniest thing, we were like the modern-day Beverly Hillbillies because we had this flatbed truck with rails and it had all 10 kids in the back with a mattress moving to Florida.”
Never Going Back – Looking Forward with Purpose
When she moved back to Sunnybrook at the age of 11 for the second and final time with seven of her siblings, she decided she never wanted to go back to that life again.
This time, the Carson kids lived on campus and with Ms. Rosie Kindrick, their house mom.
“She was so good to us. Every Friday night she made us fudge and we’d sit down and watch TV and have whatever snack she had made whether it was popcorn, little sandwiches, fudge, and sometimes cookies.”
She said life on campus with other children was pleasant.
“It was like everyone was brother and sisters. We were all so close and took care of each other,” she said.
Earlene said they attended the local schools and weren’t treated differently by their peers because of their situations.
“I was homecoming queen my senior year and it blew me away because I was so shy and I didn’t think people knew who I was. When I got nominated, I begged them to not put me on that list, but the students voted,” she said.
Earlene even met her husband, Glynn McMillen at Sunnybrook.
She said although they went to church together, she didn’t really know him. But Glynn often played basketball on campus with some of the boys and they were introduced by some houseparents, and began dating shortly thereafter.
“It was the neatest thing because they were very strict on who we dated. My husband at the time had a beard and long hair, and he was told he needed to cut his hair and shave his beard [before he would be allowed]. The next thing I knew he had done it,” she said.
From Resident to Houseparent
Earlene graduated from Madison Ridgeland High School in 1978 and a month later – June 3— they were married at Sunnybrook.
Earlene said the houseparents helped plan her wedding, one even loaned her her own wedding dress, which fit her perfectly.
They will be married for 47 years this June.
She said she later learned that her father-in-law was instrumental in getting her siblings out of the home with their parents and she said she was forever grateful.
“I said ‘dad, you sent us to Sunnybrook, and look what you got out of it.’”
After the wedding, Earline and Glynn stayed at Sunnybrook and became houseparents.
“This was my home and I wasn’t leaving,” she recalled.
They eventually made their way to Louisiana to be houseparents at a home one of Earlene’s former houseparents started. They also started a family, a boy and then a girl eight years later.
After living in Colorado for several years, they moved back to Mississippi. By this time, Earlene had started her own cleaning service and was enjoying the relationships she was forming with her clients.
She was approached by Sunnybrook to clean the administrative offices, and has been a contractor for them for 20 years.
She said she felt something greater guiding her life, and has always tried to see the positive. When she tells people she grew up at Sunnybrook, she talks about how it changed her life and how she wouldn’t be where she is today without it.
“It was beauty from ashes, and I attribute that to the Lord. He had a better plan for us. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t left home. I probably would be in the same situation that I grew up in. But I knew then, even at that young age, I never wanted to go back home.”
“I wanted a normal family and if I ever got married, I was going to be the best mom and wife because that is not what I had,” she said.
From Young Children to Transitional Youth – How Sunnybrook has Changed to Better Serve the Youth Today
For more than 60 years, Sunnybrook has served as a guiding light for young children like Earlene who were in Mississippi’s foster care system. In recent years, Sunnybrook shifted from young children to focus on older youth, creating Transitional Living Programs for young people who are about to age out of the foster care system with no money, no education, few skills, and very little hope! Sunnybrook continues to provide the stability and love that Earlene received growing up, however our residents now receive valuable programs and services that prepare them to not only survive in the real world but to thrive. Visit our website for more information concerning our mission and vision or to make a tax deductible donation. For more information concerning our mission and vision or to make a tax deductible donation, please visit sunnybrookms.org.
Our state also offers a tax credit so 100% of your donation to Sunnybrook can reduce your Mississippi taxes “dollar for dollar“…it’s so easy! To learn more about our programs and areas of need, please contact Ron Veazey today at rveazey@sunnybrookms.org or by phone, 601-540-4253.