Eugenics victim still waiting for final payment – Wilmington Star News – StarNewsOnline.com

The N.C. Department of Administration sent Brashears a letter March 21 stating the final payment is stalled until further notice.

BRUNSWICK COUNTY -- Local eugenics victim Elnora MillsBrashears still has no idea when her last payment from the state will come, but she has someone new to keep her company while she waits.

The N.C. Department of Administration on behalf of the compensation program for victims of the eugenics program sent Brashearsa letter March 21 stating the final payment is stalled until further notice.

The third and final payment cannot proceed until there is a final determination of the total number of the qualified recipientseligible to get a share of the money, according to the letter. The General Assembly appropriated funds to compensate more than 100 victims in 2013.

The Brunswick County resident was sterilized in 1967 without her knowledge when she was a teenager. Brashearswent into the hospital to have an appendectomy, but had no idea the state also removed her ability to have children. The state eugenic's program sterilized more than 7,000 men and women that were deemed unfit to have children between 1929 and 1974.

Since 2013, Brashearshas received $35,000 of the $50,000 that was promised to her. She is still paying for her husband's burial after he died in May 2016. But she has since remarried. She is also battling esophageal cancer with an upcoming surgery she said could very well be life-threatening.

"I'm going to Raleigh," Brashearssaid. Her husband Randy Brashears said he wants to support her going before officials and telling her story in person.

Randy, a Leland resident, said he met her when he was doing research for his novel about eugenics programs. The two wed in February.

"He's so good to me," Brashearssaid, shaking her head and smiling.

This is not the first timeBrashears received a letter from the state informing her there was another hold on the money. Brashearsis frustrated the payout is being stalled after what she has been through. Some individuals have appealed, claiming they should be compensated as part of the program.Brashearswas sent letters about the hold-up in payments throughout 2016.

She needs the money soon, she said, to continue fixing up her home.

"We understand your frustration in the amount of time it is taking to distribute the final payments to eligible claimants," the letter states. But she said they will never understand her frustration in not being able to have the children and grandchildren she always dreamed of having.

Reporter Ashley Morris can be reached at 910-343-2096 or Ashley.Morris@starnewsonline.com

Originally posted here:

Eugenics victim still waiting for final payment - Wilmington Star News - StarNewsOnline.com