Harvey Brooks, the founder of the Funny Farm, died Friday.
Jayne Brooks in seen in the a reflection of a framed picture of herself and her ex-husband, Harvey, on Monday afternoon at the Funny Farm. Harvey died on Friday.
A wreath given to the Brooks family by Amber Tofaeono, an acquaintance of the family, sits on the kitchen counter at the Funny Farm south of Chehalis on Monday afternoon.
Harvey Brooks is seen with his ex-wife Jayne in a photograph at the Funny Farm.
Harvey Brooks
Jayne Brooks looks at a wreath that was given to her family in memory of the death of her late husband, Harvey, on Monday afternoon south of Chehalis. Harvey, who founded the Funny Farm, passed away on Friday.
On Monday afternoon, Harvey Brooks' son, Jake, stands in the backyard of the Funny Farm telling a story about this father who died on Friday. Jake Brooks explained that it was right where he was standing when his father said a prayer in hopes of purchasing the Funny Farm property. Then, according to Jake, after taking 10 steps, his father got a call accepting his offer to buy the property.
From his hospital bed in September, Harvey Brooks told The Chronicle he wasn’t finished helping people overcome their addictions through his life’s work, Funny Farm Addictions Recovery Inc.
“There’s more for us to do,” he said.
Brooks, 54, died Friday after a long battle with illnesses including cancer and recurring bouts of pneumonia, his close friends and family said Monday.
They said they’re going to carry on Brooks’ mission.
“We want to keep the place open,” said George Casey, a long-time resident who now helps run the Funny Farm. “We’re still going to continue his message.”
Casey said Brooks’ guidance helped him become sober after decades on drugs.
“There’s no place like this,” he said.
Brooks’ ex-wife, Jayne Brooks, who has helped run the Funny Farm for about 10 years since they reconciled, said she has been amazed by the outpouring of support from the community and from past residents of the home near Napavine.
“Everybody just wants to help. They want to know what’s going on,” she said. “He’ll be missed severely by a lot of people.”
A celebration of life has not yet been scheduled.
Jacob Brooks described his father as “giving,” “kind” and “caring,” but said he wasn’t always that way. For many years, Brooks was an addict himself, and alcohol abuse ended his marriage to Jayne.
“I was eight years old when he got sober,” Jacob Brooks said. “What I remember most is the good things that happened after that.”
Brooks started the Funny Farm as it exists today more than 10 years ago, and more than 350 recovering addicts have passed through its doors.
The home is a clean and sober house, giving recovering addicts a place to accumulate clean time while meeting court commitments and putting their lives back together.
But Brooks started helping fellow addicts in recovery long before buying the property the farm sits on today, said his son Jacob.
Jacob, 29, told the story of how his dad first began taking in people who needed a sober place to stay.
“Dad got sober on May 1 of ’95,” he said.
Soon after that, the family was faced with eviction.
“He went to a meeting one night because he was fearing the possibility of being homeless with three kids,” Jacob Brooks said.
After the meeting, a couple, who were complete strangers, asked Brooks if he wanted to live in their barn.
Brooks built it into a house, his son recounted, then added a second barn where he kept animals. Soon, he started offering fellow addicts in recovery a place to stay.
That was the beginning of the Funny Farm, Jacob Brooks said.
“It just kind of fell together,” he said. “We thought it was cool. It was definitely not a normal lifestyle.”
Everything worked out for years, but then the Brooks’ landlords lost the property, and the family again needed a new place to stay. They set their sights on the current location, on Zandecki Road.
“This was about the only one we raised an eyebrow on,” Jacob Brooks said. “Back then the grass was knee high. He walked right out to this spot where we’re standing and dropped to his knees and prayed.”
Brooks said his father asked God to help him get the property. He finished praying and took a few steps back toward the house. Then his phone rang — it was his Realtor telling him he’d received the property.
In his last interview with The Chronicle, Harvey Brooks refused to take credit for the Funny Farm’s successes over the years.
“I made God a promise,” he said. “God’s the one that helps people. I just provide a clean and sober place for them to sleep. I just get to watch.”
While Harvey Brooks’ family and Casey want to keep the home an option for recovering addicts, they acknowledge that funding the operation will be a challenge without its creator.
“Other than financially, we’re gonna be OK,” Casey said.
They’re looking into options, such as grants and donations, and are hoping to continue working with the support of local law enforcement and courts.
The organization is taking donations at Chase Bank in Chehalis. Checks should be made out to Funny Farm Addictions Recovery Inc.
Brooks considered his dad’s life Monday while standing in the same spot in the grass where he once prayed to buy the property.
He thought about his father, from his days living under a bridge in Onalaska, to his years helping others avoid, or come back from, the same experience.
“I think there’s no way in a million years someone like me could do this,” he said. “It takes someone who lived in those shoes. He walked a long road.”
