This story begins in 1966 at the Falcon Orphanage in
Falcon, North Carolina, located about half way
between Fayetteville and Dunn.  It is a small church-
sponsored home for about a hundred children who
otherwise wouldn’t have a home.  The director is Rev.
Olen Vick, a loving, caring, and concerned former
minister.  Assisting him are three housemothers:  Mrs.
Jenny Coble, Miss Flossy McGregor, and the director’s
wife Mrs. Katy Vick.  The custodian is Mr. Donnie
Smithson.  There are also some volunteers that come
on occasions to help with the children.  Our main
characters are three young children:  Mikie (age 10),
Lizzie (age 8), and Jody (age 6).  Mikie’s real name is
Michael Daniel O’Rourke, Jr., Lizzie’s is Elizabeth
Anne O’Rourke, and Jody’s full name is Jody Elaine O’
Rourke.        

All three children were born in Rockingham, but
circumstances took them to strange far away places.  
Mikie has found himself head of his family long before
his time.  He’s only ten years old, but a very mature ten
years old.  These children who are now adults would
all be in their late forties or early fifties today.

The orphanage had two buses.  They were exactly like
public school buses except they were painted white.  
There were double seats on each side of the aisle,
except at the very back seat there was only one seat on
the right side.  The left side seat was missing to
accommodate storage.  They liked to travel to churches
in the two-state area and have the children sing for the
congregations.  Usually this was on Sunday, but
occasionally it could be on a weekday.  The idea was to
introduce the children to prospective new permanent
homes.  Less than 15% of the children were ever
adopted, and some of these end up returning to the
orphanage.  Back then it was exceedingly difficult to
place children over six years old or siblings who
insisted on staying together.  This was before the day
of “legal abortions on demand” like we have today.  
There were plenty of babies available for adoption.  
The older children had a lot of emotional and
adjustment problems that most adoptive parents would
avoid by just adopting a baby.

On a Sunday outing to a church in Lumberton several
months before, the minister there preached a sermon
on the “Protestant Ethic”; that is, “God helps those
who help themselves.”  People should plan their lives
and prepare for things that lay ahead.  Mikie started
thinking about this, and decided he would do just that.  
The first obstacle was to get away from the orphanage
for a day or so.  This was very much against the rules.  
So Mikie started planning.  The Director and all the
housemothers were pretty careful about counting the
children when going on trips, except for Miss Flossy.  
Mikie figured if they sat in the back seat of the bus
where no other children would notice them, and if
Miss Flossy were the housemother on that bus that
day, they could just duck behind the seat in front of
them when she started her head count as they left the
orphanage.  With a little bit of luck, they wouldn’t be
missed until “bed check” that night.

The right opportunity did arise about the middle of
December.  It was a Friday trip to Raleigh to sing
Christmas carols at a church there.  If Mikie, Lizzie,
and Jody could pull this off, they might have several
days before the authorities caught up with them and
sent them back to the orphanage.  Mikie thought to
himself: “I wonder if they would send me to Jackson
Training School?  That’s a place where they send
juvenile delinquents.  I ain’t done nothing really bad.  I’
m just like a boll weevil; I’m just looking for a home.  
We’re not doing anything that bad.  Except for giving
Rev. Vick and the housemothers a difficult time of it.  
Poor Miss Flossy.  She’ll catch it from the Reverend.  
The housemothers are really nice, good people.  The
problem is that they treat all the children the same.  
No one child is special.  I know it has to be that way at
an orphanage.  Back when my mother and father were
alive, we children were very special to them.  That’s
what we’re looking for.”

There’s an old saying: “Necessity is the mother of
invention.”   This was surely true for these children.  
You do what you have to do.  The British victory in the
“Battle of Britain” back in 1939 shows what can be
accomplished when it is absolutely necessary to prevail
in the face of rather daunting obstacles.  As Winston
Churchill said: “Never, never, never, never give up!”  
Lizzie and Jody looked up to their older brother.  They
all knew they had to stick together if they wanted to
stay together.  They knew what Mikie wanted to do was
against the rules, but it sounded like a good idea to
them.  There are many sibling pairs at the orphanage,
but only one other group with at least three.   


To be continued....