Lynnette and David Thompson are a couple married for 23 years who are still sweethearts and Valentines. They sat on their couch after David got home from work and told their sweet story together. They reminded me of teenagers “going steady.” It’s not been a time without struggles and difficulties, but they have made it through together.

The couple met in May,1996, while attending the Fire Academy in Texas in hopes of becoming firefighters. David noticed the pretty 19-year-old immediately, and when he was selected as president of the group, he chose her as his vice president, “mostly to get to know her,” he admitted. He had just gotten out of the USMC, was 23, and looking for a new career.  She didn’t instantly like him. He seemed arrogant and came across as a “know it all,” having spent the last four years as a Marine, and said everything in the training was “too easy” for him. It took him three months, but he convinced her to go out.

“I’ve always had dreams,” said Latia Nelson. “And I never want to be that older woman who says she gave up her dreams and has regrets.” Latia calls herself a one-woman army who marches forward each day to follow her dreams and her heart.

At the age of 21 Latia became a single mom, after being raised by a single mother herself. “Circumstances were a motivation for me. I saw my mother struggle, and at 16, I wanted to get a job to help out. I’m never going back. I’m not going to look back. I’m going to keep going.” As a first-generation college graduate, she earned not one, but two degrees—liberal arts and business administration/marketing. She now has more than 10 years experience in visual media arts and branding.

They met on Monday, married on Saturday and 57 years later, Eileen and Robert Hutton are still married and very much in love.

“We met on a picket line,” Eileen chuckled. She and Bob both had jobs at Montgomery Ward Department Store in Detroit. Bob had just gotten out of the Air Force, and she had just finished her first year of college. Then Retail Clerks International went on strike, and they were among the picketers.

At age 10, Kalimah Elizabeth Moss may not have terms like “aspirational” or “economic empowerment” in her vocabulary, but she’s already living them. Her company, Lizzie’s Lip Pop, LLC, is a glittering success (she even has a customer in Africa!) and her achievements have motived other young people to follow their dreams, too.

“I started my business during quarantine because it was boring and there was nothing to do,” said Kalimah, whose nickname, Lizzie, was bestowed at birth by her grandmother and now lends itself to her company. “I also hate sticky lip gloss from out the store, so I made my own. If kids tell me I can’t do it, I’ll still do it. Ever since I started my business, my brother started his own business and so did my cousin.”

Caroline Oyler is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia and a recent transplant to the Lowcountry. She is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and moved to Hilton Head last March, just in time for the pandemic, but that hasn’t slowed Caroline down at all.

She has a successful Instagram page called Simply Radishing, where she shares her own experience and research on vegan lifestyles, nutrition, mindfulness and mental health. Caroline also solicits and reviews products from vendors in order to keep her followers updated and informed. She recently added a blog where she shares recipes and advice. Her goal is not to sell ads, or make money, it’s to help others. In addition, Caroline intends to complete a yoga training program so she can teach yoga on a part-time basis. What’s amazing is how she juggles all of this while working full time as a law clerk at Horton & Goodman Law Firm in Bluffton.

he uncomfortableness that would surround me when someone would ask “Why does your dad only have one arm?” or “How many siblings do you have?” was sometimes unbearable. I usually found myself thinking about exotic lies to tell people about these situations because the truth was too complicated for me to comprehend and explain at that age. I remember telling one of my classmates that my dad got his arm bitten off by an alligator because I thought it was easier to say that than to say, “He got in a car wreck and had to get his arm amputated.” It was so confusing when others would ask me how many siblings I had. I didn’t know whether to say I had 3 or 2. Did she still count as my sibling even though she passed away? My young innocent mind couldn’t handle it.
    Excerpt from "Every 16 Minutes"—An Essay by Jaala Grant

When most college freshman are flying from party to party without a thought of the consequences, Jaala Grant doesn’t play that. She’s too familiar with what can happen when life goes horribly wrong.    
“So many teenagers drive crazy, and they just think it’s a joke,” says this quiet, mature Hilton Head native and first-year nursing major. “Until something happens—then it’s too late.”

With a brisk beach walk and talk and brilliant brains colliding, the idea was born. In 2015, the conversation between Karen Kindermann and Amber Kuehn, alongside a bale of volunteers, the foundation of their idea turned into a reality, making Turtle Trackers what they are today. The Turtle Trackers is a 501(c)3 charity made up of volunteers from across Hilton Head Island and Bluffton. Their mission is to assist the Sea Turtle Patrol of Hilton Head Island and educate the public for the protection of our most precious locals, our sea turtle hatchlings heading to the ocean.

Starting with a small but fierce crew, the Turtle Trackers grew from a mere five or six gals  to more than 400 volunteers, men and women, and six chapters island wide. The group originated in Sea Pines but has made its way to Forest Beach, Shipyard, Palmetto Dunes, Singleton Beach, Port Royal and the North End, which is the chapter of trackers anyone can join.

Three lovely ladies met up with me at Beaufort Waterfront Park yesterday, and I must admit, I envy them. They are part of a sisterhood that has been active in Beaufort for 40 years, and have made friendships and connections that reach all over the country and beyond our borders. They are members of the Nu Delta Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. It’s a sorority for black women either in college, or after graduation, and it’s all about service and friendship.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA) began with a dream in the heart of a young Howard University student, Ethel Hedgeman.  Along with eight other students, in 1908 she started the first black sorority that has grown to nearly 300,000 members world-wide. Through the years the membership has addressed issues such as women's suffrage, segregation and inequality, poverty and poor health care and educational inequity. The organization emphasizes service: whether in Africa, or to people next door, and always strives to lift women up by creating bonds of friendship.

In the summer of 1990 two young college coeds headed to Capitol Hill as student interns.

Rose Newton, a Southern conservative Christian Republican from rural Manning, SC, was to work for Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Sharon Anolik, a liberal Jewish Democrat from California, was assigned to Senator Barbara Boxer of California.

These US Senators were polar opposites in their political views and ideologies, and quite frankly, so were these two young women. Fate brought them together as roommates that summer, and against all odds, they built a friendship that has lasted three decades and counting.

Kitty Price Wright and Fran Wise met in 1952, when they were in second grade in Salisbury, N.C. Their friendship spans nearly seven decades, 68 years to be exact. They have supported each other through thick and thin, from sharing their school and college years, to raising their children and grandchildren and going through the deaths of their parents.

Last February, Kitty received a diagnosis of breast cancer. She texted Fran to share the bad news, and Fran responded with a text that stated: “I can send the same text back to you. I got my diagnosis yesterday.”

When Stephanie Reed and Brooke Allen met each other 22 years ago as young mothers in a local bible study on Hilton Head Island, they could not have imagined all they would share in the pursuing years. This chance meeting grew into a bond between two people that is rare to come by.

“We grew up together, and our children grew up together. Our friendship is an extension of who I am, and each moment together is just as special as the last. We are more than best friends, Brooke is my family,” Stephanie said.

It was an old-fashioned love affair of Hampton County. She was in the 9th grade, and he was a senior, so a month went by before Willard and Lynda Tuten told anyone they’d married. “Momma and daddy hit the ceiling,” Lynda recalls. “But anyway.” By age 20 she had four children and a lifetime ahead with her beloved Willard.

“We did everything together,” said Lynda, who lives on Paukie Island in Beaufort. “He wasn’t one of these who had to go out with the boys. Our hobbies were going to yard sales and festival hopping. I don’t think I’ve missed but one Hampton Watermelon Festival, and that was when my granddaughter got married.”

When Rhonda Wallace enrolled in medical school seven years ago, she joined the ranks of some 20,000 students aspiring to become doctors. At the time, men outnumbered women in U.S. medical schools by nearly 10 percent.

But it wasn’t her gender that made Rhonda stand out among her peers —it was her age.
At 47, the mother of two teenage girls was nearly twice as old as the average first-year med student. Just one-tenth of one percent of students are in their late 40s when they begin the arduous seven-year process to become a doctor.

"Behind the makeup, clothes and titles
we need to be okay with who we are.
Some of us are getting dressed and made up,
while inside we are broken."

When I was growing up, I wanted to be…
My earliest memory was wanting to help the less privileged. As a teenager, I wanted to become a fashion model. Later a business woman.

“I never wear this much makeup on a Saturday!” exclaimed one of the two lovely ladies I met outside the coffee shop in Waterfront Park in Beaufort. They both have big brown eyes, medium length brown hair and were wearing summery dresses with high clog heels.

Miranda Moss, Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, and Ashley Konoza, Doctor of Physical Therapy, look absolutely identical.  But they aren’t, they laugh. Everyone thinks that, they assured me, but they are fraternal twins. And yes, they had fun with that in school! 

At age 25, this ambitious little firecracker has already earned two masters degrees and started two companies. She teaches a few undergrad classes, and in her spare time, trains for half-marathons. When she needs a break, she reupholsters furniture.

“I’m a huge multitasker; always have been,” admitted Sierra, crediting the influence of her go-getter parents, who were always juggling a million things. Having grown up near Kennedy Space Center, it’s little wonder Sierra followed her own blazing star into the world of innovation. She attended the Nation’s first innovation academy at the University of Florida, where she was one of 16 inaugural graduates and the first woman from the program to go on and earn her masters in innovation. In 2017 she started Ginger Media, a marketing firm that creates strategies for small businesses through social media and graphic design. Add to that her Harvard certification in technology innovation and the $15K scholarship she was awarded at the European Innovation Academy (then located in Turino, Italy) and you can see this girl stays busy.

Through the lens of history, we look forward.

The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. The passage marked the largest expansion of democracy in the history of our country. On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment  to the Constitution was ratified. On November 2 of that year, more than 8 million women across the United States voted in elections for the first time.

Jeanne Elmore of Beaufort is a member of both the American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters. She is passionate about women’s rights, and her message to all women is: “Women didn’t get the right to vote, women had to fight for it.”

It came as a surprise later in life when Erin Reichert and Sarah Clemmons discovered that not everyone spent their formative years visiting random monuments across America. But the family’s extensive travels to national parks and historic sites gave these sisters a lasting love of history—or “sistory,” as they dubbed it after an hour-long jam session that revealed their fact-wielding nerd-prowess.

“You know you’re pretty deep into history when your vacations are to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library,” quipped Sarah, who confessed to liking presidents “with a little bit of tarnish on them,” particularly Lyndon B. Johnson.

From the time Stephanie Treece was a young girl growing up in Saltsburg, a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pa., she knew she wanted to pursue a career in the sciences. She had no idea at the time she would eventually become one of the first women to serve on a U.S. Navy submarine.

“I’ve always been pretty good at math and science. In math, there is always an answer, so I knew I would be going into a technical field,” said Stephanie, who currently oversees defense contracts as program manager with PaR Systems at the Brunswick Port. “My dad started out as an HVAC tech. He had to work a lot on weekends, so he would take me on calls to spend time together. He would take me to inner-city Pittsburgh, and we would go up into the skyscrapers, that’s where I got my love for physics,” she said, adding thanks to her father, she also learned how to install tile, drywall and fix plumbing.

Like the cocktails she creates with such finesse, Monica Smith Collins, General Manager at the Whiskey Room Kitchen and Cocktails, is an island original.

Monica first arrived in Hilton Head with her parents-to-be in the mid-seventies, making her own appearance shortly thereafter in the Beaufort hospital maternity ward, since Hilton Head didn’t yet have one of its own. Beyond that brief detour, Monica’s early childhood years were spent exclusively on the Island.

It stuck. While her family eventually returned to North Carolina, Monica took the first chance she got to return, accepting a position with Outback Steakhouse after graduation and eventually opening a restaurant for them on Hilton Head’s north end.

Independent, strong, free- spirited, determined and powerful are the words that come to mind when I think of Rachel Goulet. The 32-year-old Charleston, SC resident embodies everything it means to be unapologetically yourself. Rachel is a mental health counselor at College of Charleston and a Captain in the Army National Guard. Just when you think you know what she’s all about, you find layer upon layer of unique factors that make her who she is.

In 2009, Rachel graduated from the College of Charleston (CofC) with a major in sociology and minor in psychology. “Ever since starting at the College of Charleston, I knew it's where I wanted to end up. This has been my dream job since 2005, when I started there [as a student].” To achieve this dream she knew she needed graduate school. Not wanting to take out loans, she decided to turn towards the military. Many members of Rachel’s family were veterans, including her father, who was in the United States Marine Corps. So she knew about that lifestyle and the wonderful benefits that come along with it.

A petite, but powerful, young woman from the Philippines traveled across the globe to America at the age of 26 with grit and determination to make it in the U.S. “When I got off the plane in Michigan, all I had with me was a suitcase and a degree,” said Febie Knight. “I came on a work visa with a job lined up as a traveling physical therapist. I was alone, but I figured ‘no guts, no glory.’”

Thirteen years ago, Febie opened Ridgeland Physical Therapy & Sports Rehabilitation Clinic. The young woman who got off that plane is now a business owner with several employees, working in a profession she loves. “I came from a family background where we were physically active, especially my father. He always said to exercise every day because it reduces stress,” Febie said. “Now with my clients, I have good luck encouraging them to continue their exercises and to get active. Most come back for our wellness program. Many of them say ‘she’s so little and she’s older, so if she can do it, we can do more.’ We all have aches and pains, but stretching and doing the therapy keeps you physically fit and healthy. I motivate my clients to continue what they learn from me and remind them it’s important to listen to your body.”

With the salt water behind her and her sons beside her, Paula “Pinky” Michaud meets life head on with a splash of spunk and hefty dose of determination. Paula is one woman who refuses to let others rule her world.

Born in Redondo Beach, CA, Paula moved to Hilton Head Island, the place she calls her home and heart, with her father when she was 5 years old. At age 16, the dynamics of her family changed course when her grandmother died. With a few complications with her dad and step mother, Paula was put out on her own. Fortunately, she had incredible work ethic and was able to make ends meet even at 16. Among the many jobs she has had, Paula found her passion early on as an employee at Jack Rabbit Photography. “Photography has always been my love. It’s sad these days. No one even knows what an F stop is anymore,” she said. Even though Jack Rabbit is long gone, her passion for photography has stayed in tact over the years. “I still have some unused film. We’ll see what happens,” she laughed.

Four years ago, Nicole Arnold was approaching graduation from Hilton Head Island High School and craving some adventure. After brainstorming a variety of ideas, her biggest passion led her on the greatest journey of her life so far. With a whole lot of planning, dreaming, and researching, Nicole set her goal: To bike across the United States.

For as long as Nicole can remember, she has been glued to a bicycle seat. Always an independent child, she would spend hours biking around her island neighborhood. When she road, she had a box on the back of her bike to keep her belongings in— little did she know, this would prepare her in achieving her dream while traveling with ease. 

What was the catalyst for you to start hiking? It all started in 1984 with a simple comment to a friend, “I would really like to hike into the Grand Canyon.” To my surprise, she responded, “So would I!” My response: “Well, let’s do it”

One year later we sat on the bank of the Colorado River soaking our tired feet after the all day, 7-mile hike down the steep South Kaibab Trail to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Sitting with us were four girlfriends who had enthusiastically accepted the invitation to take on this challenge.
The challenge, however, was not over. We still had to climb OUT of the canyon on the 9-mile Bright Angel Trail the next day to the South Rim, which rose about 5000 feet above us. The next afternoon as we took our final steps of the hike, we forgot our sore knees, aching backs and toenail-less feet and shouted for joy. We had made it!

It all started in 1984 with a simple comment to a friend, “I would really like to hike into the Grand Canyon.” To my surprise, she responded, “So would I!” My response: “Well, let’s do it”

On February 20, 2020 in San Francisco, California, Nancy LaPointe embarked on the Grand Princess cruise ship with her husband Jim for a 15-day adventure through the islands of Hawaii. Being long-time cruise-goers, this trip’s route was familiar to them, and they were thrilled to be cashing in on certain amenities they had earned over the years; most excitingly, she was ready to enjoy a large balcony. Unbeknownst to Nancy, she was going to be spending a lot more time on her balcony than originally planned. As Nancy and her husband were reveling in the excursions of the cruise ship and of Hawaii, the novel coronavirus was beginning to penetrate the United States. Two days before the journey was set to end, Nancy and Jim began a new excursion that was not exactly one they paid for.

Jessica Foley is every bit the professional realtor. She arrived for our appointment early, stylish and poised, carrying a fabulous big purse, which held, what I can only surmise, things to ready her for any situation.

A relative newcomer to the area, Jessica has dove in head first, both professionally and personally. She is an agent with the prestigious Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Bay Street Realty Group. She is also a member of the Junior Service League of Beaufort and a volunteer with the Beaufort Water Festival, Child Abuse Prevention Association (CAPA) and Pritchard’s Island Sea Turtle Project. It is this last organization that gives us a hint into her past.

Jackie Currie drives with bees flying around in her Prius.
She climbs trees to capture wild swarms. She tracks the “nectar flow”
from the year’s first blooming red maples and dandelions
to the last goldenrods and asters of fall.

She understands the personalities of her hives—which are good honey producers, which are mite-resistant, which overwinter well, which are docile and which are feisty—and she causes them to reproduce accordingly. She knows when they’re gathering pollen and ramping up to reproduce their colony, when they’re sending out this explosion of bees to gather nectar and make honey, and when they’re hunkering down to survive winter, perhaps with a little help from the sugar-water she puts out for them in lean times. She is the Bee Lady, a self-appointed steward of the species.

After high school, Beth’s father explained to her that flying was “a man’s game,” and she should formally study something else. Beth earned an undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland and completed her graduate work at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia in wildlife disease management and marine mammal microbiology. Until her dream to become a pilot could materialize, she worked at a zoo for a few years, loving every second, but itching to be in the air. When the pilot school finally started to accept women, Beth was first in line and accepted in the first class at Shields Aviation in Jacksonville, FL. Upon completion, she was hired by a major commercial carrier and flew as a pilot for almost 11 years until she was called to do bigger and better things, which ultimately changed her life.

Growing up, we all had opportunities to get involved in something beyond school that we (hopefully) enjoyed. Whether our interests were to play the clarinet, join the lacrosse team, or to destroy our opponents in chess club, we would usually spend a few hours after our last class of the day meeting with others who helped us focus on building our skills in an area we were passionate about. We called these our after-school activities.

For 17-year-old Kierstyn Holt, 14-year-old Alayna Weilnau, and 11-year-old Lawson Weilnau, their interests involved them in activities that couldn’t quite be classified as “after-school” activities. These siblings have a passion to learn and grow beyond what is known to be typical. They are involved in 4-H, an organization that allows them to take on projects that become a big part of their lives, that they must invest time and energy in each day to see to fruition. These projects numerous life skills that most people take years to develop.