“We are on a road trip to Fairhope. We live in a small town of about 600 people in Missouri. We have lived there all of our lives.”

Becky
“I work for a company out of Mobile, and they had a conference at the Grand Hotel around Christmas. My son and daughter came with me and we thought it was a magical town. My daughter and I came back last year. Fairhope at Christmas became my happy place, and my family gave me this trip as a surprise for my 50th birthday. We are staying at a cute house on the bay.”

Beth
“Now we all love Fairhope. We were getting groceries at a store here, and a lady with a crying child came up to us and asked for money. We all went to our purses to help.

Mom and Dad are natural caregivers and passed the need to care for others down to us. If something is broken, we will help you fix it. Mom is 73 and works at the food pantry and the voting station. She volunteers everywhere to help people.

I have been a daycare provider for a long time in our small town and helped raise a lot of kids. They call my mom Grandma Teresa.

Our family has a gene that causes cancer. My dad, sister, brother, and aunt had it, and they all had had surgery. My husband and daughter had it, too.

When I found out my daughter was sick, I called Dad and asked how I was going to get through it. He said, ‘If you don’t keep emptying your canoe every day, it fills up with water. If it fills up, you’re going to drown, so keep dipping out of that canoe.’ My family helped empty my canoe. Family is our sunshine on our darkest days. We know that God takes care of us, and we get through the hard times.

My daughter is probably the brightest light of all of us. She is in nursing school so she couldn’t come down with us.

Becky, Carley, my daughter, and I got tepee tattoos because we are in the same tribe. We showed them to Mom and Dad at church so they couldn’t say too much. Mom still says she isn’t getting a tattoo.”

Carley
“I learned about caring for others from my family. I am a travel nurse and went all over the U.S. during COVID. My husband is a travel nurse too. We lived in Seattle and got married on top of a mountain in Seattle, Washington. I wanted to elope, but that didn’t go over well with Mom and Grandma. Instead we did a week-long vacation with all of our family, and my grandfather married us.

I came home to surprise Mom on her 50th birthday. The surprise for all of us was that I am pregnant. The baby is coming in June.

We are already planning our trip back to Fairhope, but next time there will be four generations.”