Vol. 5, No. 2 • May 2001
Couple helped 43 foster children
by Erica McDonald, Salisbury PostIn 1974, Jannie Cornelius had to take some sick time off from her job at a local mill.
About the same time, she talked to a good friend who had joined the foster parent program, caring for children removed from their homes by the courts.
She soon became interested in taking care of foster children herself. Her husband, the Rev. Frank Cornelius, supported her interest.
Twenty-six years and 43 children later, the Corneliuses—she's 73 and he's 74—look back in wonder at the change that decision brought to their lives. They retired as foster parents last fall after drawing accolades from officials with the Rowan County Department of Social Services.
Back in 1974, when Jannie Cornelius first thought about helping foster children, the couple's five children were already grown, and she felt she had extra time to give other children. Frank Cornelius continued his full-time job as pastor of Union Chapel AME Zion Church.
The couple started out fostering a variety of children, from newborns to 16-year-olds. But they found that newborn babies were hard to let go of and that some of the teen-agers were too hard to control.
So, for most of their career as foster parents, they cared for children ages 4 to 10, though occasionally fostering other ages. The longest the family has kept one child was three years.
"This little boy came to us at the right time, and we wanted to adopt him," Jannie Cornelius says. The family grew especially attached to him because their only son, Robert, had died of leukemia in 1982.
They were unable to adopt him, however, because foster parents were not encouraged to adopt then as most are today. From then on, they mostly took care of little boys.
The Corneliuses tried to give all their foster children the love and attention they deserved. They always tried to treat them just as they treated their own, avoiding favorites. At home, the children had chores, and they learned good manners.
When they came to stay with the Corneliuses, most children didn't own anything except their clothes. The couple worked hard to provide what the children needed, including nice clothes for church.
Many children had been shipped from home to home. Most came to the Cornelius home with a pessimistic outlook. They really didn't want to be where they were. The couple tried to make them feel at home.
In addition to their foster children, the Corneliuses have four daughters, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Every afternoon, Jannie Cornelius picks her great-grandson up from school. She keeps his sister during the day.
But their foster children seem like family also.
"The children brought the family closer," Frank Cornelius says.
Source: Salisbury Post; Rowan County, NC, January 13, 2001. Reprinted with permission.
Copyright � 2001 Jordan Institute for Families
