The long days shoveling dirt passed slowly. Truthfully, brothers Dedrick and Kenny Mills needed a way to keep their minds off the work they were actually doing.
As a way to help their mother pay the bills, the Mills boys started working in high school at the Miles-Odum Funeral Home in their hometown of Waycross, Georgia. Dedrick Mills had a fear of dead bodies, but he could not afford to be picky. Not when his mother had four boys to support.
"The guy who oversaw things at the funeral home saw me out on the field, and he knew I had a future to go on to play college, so he just said he wanted to give me a job to keep me out of trouble and help out with my family because he knew we were struggling a little bit so he took care of us," Dedrick Mills said.