As we wave farewell or at least say ‘see ya next time,’ to this pandemic, and soon after 2022, I note that both took from me my mother, as well as several irreplaceable and close friends. Those losses helped me appreciate those still in my world even more and clarified that I might let more of them know what they mean to me, while they are around to hear it.
My firstborn, Marylynn Barclay Crane Carson turns 30 years old this week. Where did all that time go?
Well, in answer to that, our young and loving child grew into an incredibly intelligent, considerate, kind, and beautiful young woman, largely due to an incredible upbringing by her mother, Nancy Lowery Powell. Barclay would go on to Auburn University, graduating in exactly 8 semesters (four academic years), Summa Cum Laude, with a job as she graduated with Teach for America.
Her first teaching post with Fulton County, in an Elementary School almost literally at the foot of one of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport's runways was a challenge. I think it taught her a lot about herself, about people and these times we live in, and about the occasionally volatile nature of public education. She soon moved back home to Gwinnett County and another teaching position there, alongside her mother, a career educator, at Tripp Elementary School in Gwinnett County.
While still at Auburn, in her condo with a roommate who remains a close friend, she met her backdoor neighbor, and now husband, Cody Carson. The pair had grown up just over three miles apart but attended different schools, and never met until moving to Auburn. Location, location, location...
Cody, also a fine young man, raised by a loving family and in a family business, formally asked for Barclay's hand and on June 18, 2016, the pair were wed in a blessed ceremony at The Vecoma on the Yellow River in Lilburn, surrounded by friends and family.
Those two don't mess around with indecision, as they also simultaneously moved into their first home in Grayson. Barclay was teaching with her mother at Tripp, and Cody was learning the family enterprise as well as handling client sales nearby in Winder. Two dogs and a three-legged cat rounded out that first household.
These two were also ready to start their family, and an 18-month period of two difficult miscarriages would follow, though their union remained strong, and they grew even closer as a couple. The third time was the charm, and though that pregnancy was not without difficulty, our famed Mighty Mites, Callen and Carter Carson, arrived 9 weeks ahead of schedule on 9/18/2020.
In case you are not noting the pattern here...Barclay was born on 12/18, she got married on 6/18 and the boys arrived on 9/18. Though Cody's birthday is on May 17th, she organized and spaced everything else neatly 6 and 3 months apart.
This fall, Barclay moved to Head Elementary, closer to home and as an ESL instructor working a half-day schedule, allowing her to be home with Callen and Carter Carson just after lunchtime, with her mother, Nancy Powell covering the morning shift, immediately following her retirement as a multiple years Teacher of the Year at Tripp, and prior to that Pharr Elementary. Nancy also continues to enjoy work in community theater and lives nearby in Snellville with her husband and Barclay's stepfather, Danny Powell.
To in part accommodate the larger family, Barclay and Cody relocated to Lilburn, and Rivermist, one of John Weiland's first communities, and they have thoughtfully and lovingly renovated that home while welcoming twins and situating those two dogs and the cat.
Health challenges continue to be a reality for our Mighty Mites, but each time they rebound, with immune systems that I think will one day be able to knock down skyscrapers. And through all of this, while additionally creating a second business, Barclay Carson Photography...as well as assisting her old man out with Graphic Design at CSI Crane, LLC, Barclay, always with a smile, marches on.
I could not be any prouder, nor love her anymore, without spontaneously combusting, and that would probably mess up my hair. We love you Kiddo. Happy Birthday, and thank you for bringing so much happiness to so many, and for inspiring so many of your students to love learning and hopefully lead long healthy, and happy lives.
