Our American Heroes

On September 11, 2001, shortly after 8:46 a.m., millions of Americans sat helpless by their television & radio sets in an attempt to make sense of a tragedy that was unfolding in New York City. American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed between the 94th & 98th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Centers, instantly killing every passenger & worker on those floors & trapping everybody above it. Constant coverage revealed a city in shock. At 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 crashed between the 78th & 84th floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Centers on live television. Suddenly the world was aware these terrifying events were no accident. Horrified & vulnerable we sat & watched.

Despite a city submerged by fear & uncertainty - even in the earliest moments of 9/11 - hundreds of emergency workers & firefighters of the New York City Fire Department geared up & headed straight into the heart of catastrophe. EMS units & private ambulances set up triage centers for the wounded while the FDNY devised a plan for rescuing & evacuating those trapped by the fire. Video footage shows emergency workers at the ground floor of the twin towers acting without hesitation - & at times without radio communication - suppressing any emotion that had potential to prevent them from pressing forward. With no knowledge of what would soon occur & with elevators not in working order, firefighters began climbing the stairwell in full gear. No further than 78 flights had they climbed when the South Tower collapsed at 9:54 a.m. 34 minutes later, the North Tower collapsed. In the end, over 400 emergency workers were killed, 343 of them firefighters & 72 of them officers. In total, almost 3,000 people lost their lives.

Sixteen years have passed since the Twin Towers were struck (along with two other hijacked planes, one that crashed into the Pentagon & another in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania). Every year, I am invited by 15-year-old me to re-experience these moments of great sadness. Sheltered & overly-comfortable in my small hometown, I was awakened to the reality of this world's potentials. I took to the only thing that made sense to me - writing. I copied news headlines in my diary & jotted sentences, coherent or not. I challenged myself to open my eyes & become engulfed in whatever was happening & though I could not understand, I clung to whatever I was feeling at the time as it became my refuge, my words gallantly navigating through the turbulence of emotion. Over the years, countless words have been used to describe what happened that day & the days following but only one describes the men & women who responded to this emergency of grand proportion: brave.

Medical experience in the Emergency Department, along with close friends & acquaintances who have chosen to remain public servants has revealed to me that there exists an entire breed of people who actively choose to risk their lives every day for the safety & wellbeing of their community. It does not escape me the blood that courses through the veins of paramedics/EMTs, nurses, firefighters, police officers, & military personnel caries with it a sickness that prevents them from ever truly becoming anything else. They seem to be addicted to pain & are guaranteed to return for more after spurts of "normalcy" with friends & family. To continue to perform a (mostly) thankless, rewardless, exhausting job with a specific skillset, level of knowledge, training, experience, certification, & licensing while maneuvering through administration, oftentimes low salaries, & an extremely diverse group of community members (some of them quite dangerous), one must truly be dedicated. On September 11, 2001, responders set out to do a job. Though unaware of what awaited them, they were prepared for anything. In this regard, there is no difference in the first responders that answered the call to the Twin Towers & the very men & women who serve our own community - every day heroes, just "doing their job".

This is my thanks.

A coat hangs in Station 1 of the Brunswick Fire Department

Last month, I had the distinct honor & privilege of meeting with Officer Kevin Jones of the Glynn County Police Department & Jonathan James of the Brunswick Fire Department. Both visits were insightful in many ways but I knew I would never be able to adequately capture the sacrifices these men - along with the other men & women (& K9s) who serve our community - make on a daily basis. On September 7 of this year, I packed up my family in preparation for Hurricane Irma - at the time, a category 5 hurricane off our coast - & evacuated to safety as millions of Georgia & Florida residents did. Hundreds of local first responders stayed behind, uncertain of when they would be able to return to their homes & uncertain of the dangers that awaited them. From the safety of my refuge, I followed closely as pictures began flooding my Facebook feed of my precious coastal city of Brunswick with rising waters, fallen trees, & accrued damages from high winds. The only constant security in a time of great uncertainty was the men & women who remained. They were tasked with a job of holding our community together during an extremely unpredictable natural event & were the first ones to begin picking up the pieces when it was all over. Yesterday was the first day Fireman James was able to return to his home on St. Simons Island since before the storm hit. This is a circumstance that echoes throughout our community as first responders are slowly able to leave their exhausting positions & rest in their own beds - just in time for their next shifts.

Photo courtesy of City of Brunswick Police Department via Facebook of officers taking residents to safety after Irma

Photo courtesy of City of Brunswick Police Department via Facebook of officers taking residents to safety after Irma

A photo taken from the FLETC Headquarters Facebook page of the Glynn County Police Department heading out to ensure the safety of our residents after the storm. Photo: David Tucker

The Brunswick Fire Department hands out free bags of ice to the community after Irma at the Mary Ross Waterfront Park

Every day our community advances toward a sense of normalcy. As days & weeks pass, we may become complacent or forget to notice the hard work of those who will continue to pick up the pieces. If one thing is for certain, it's that this world is anything but. However, let's not forget the people who are called to be a light in the dark, the ones who remain behind when the rest of us flee, the first ones to arrive to an accident, & the last to return home. Let us never forget our very own heroes.

When I first began this project, I had a difficult time convincing Deputy Chief May of the Brunswick Fire Department (albeit indirectly) to allow his station to participate. See, I hear he's the modest, "old-school" type who is highly-regarded & respected but refuses to be called a "hero". It is said he would do anything for his men & community - I have no reason to believe otherwise. I even reached out to a few other firefighters who respectfully declined my invitation to participate in the interview process; some may find themselves too cynical, or have nothing to offer. However, I recognize the dangers these heroes are subjected to on a daily basis. You may remove your gear but you will never remove the images that have been forever burned in your mind - your burden. Never can you, even just for a moment, dismiss what you are under your uniform: a public servant. You continue, fearlessly, despite higher rates in cancer & mental illness directly related to your job. But these possible long-term effects are nothing compared to the short-term ones. I can't imagine the things you don't talk about, things you have accepted as "just doing a job." You may think what you do goes unnoticed but, to every person (& animal) who puts on their uniform day after day & walks bravely into the unknown, I see you.

Continue scrolling for more photos of our local heroes at their "every day jobs!"

Officer Kevin Jones at a routine traffic stop

The inside of Officer Jones' police car

K9 unit, Grey, is one of three & poses with his officer, Scott Browning. He is highly trained & has the ability to track humans by detecting recently-disturbed earth & can detect the scent of five different drugs.

K9 Grey & Officer Scott Browning demonstrate how they search for drugs

Father & son team at the Glynn County Police Department

Chief May walks through Station 1 in Downtown Brunswick

Every shift, the firemen of Station 1 in Downtown Brunswick do PT

The Brunswick Fire Department performs maintenance on one of their engines

-My utmost gratitude to the Brunswick Fire Department, Station 1, & the Glynn County Police Department.

Hurricane Irma

This time last week, my family & I were making preparations to leave our town of Brunswick, GA as Hurricane Irma was barreling toward our coast. Continuing updates revealed a storm, unlike all others born from the Atlantic, quite fickle in her nature. Though she remained far away at the time, millions of coast-dwellers began preparing for the worst. Already under a state of emergency & a large portion of Florida making its way up any & all interstates & major highways, my husband, in-laws, & myself made the last-minute decision to leave a few days before a mandatory evacuation was due to be implemented.

To say preparing for an evacuation is stressful is the understatement of the year. The emotional highs & lows are beyond exhausting. As soon as I made the decision to evacuate my family, I began cleaning - & not even light cleaning. I picked my rugs up, shook them all out, mopped my floors like there was no tomorrow & began scrubbing baseboards. I packed anything that meant something to me, my children, my dog, my cat, & said silent "goodbyes" to the rest of my stuff. You know, just in case. I suppressed growing fears that surrounded this storm & we left.

Our retreat was a small farm house in Juliette, GA; one I had strongly connected with on my only other visit just months prior. Two horses, seven head of cattle, a pond with plenty of fish, countless wild deer & turkey, lots of beautiful history, & what feels like miles of land to roam without a single care in the world. Service is inconsistent & rare at this specific destination & the "outside world" can only be reached via a hotspot device. Though many appointments were cancelled due to this storm & Gunner had to celebrate his very first birthday away from some friends & family, we settled in quite nice.

We watched the storm very closely, its path & strength always in the background of our minds. We even ventured to Forsyth a few times & breathed relief as we watched traffic inch north at a very slow pace on I-75. We had made the right call to leave when we did. But every six hours, Irma was shown to have drifted further west & I began to question if we had evacuated far away enough as we would certainly end up on the east side of this monstrous storm - something that had the potential to be dangerous. With two small children, I'm never really up for such adventures.

I had heard power would be lost state-wide & I took it upon myself to assess the trees that surrounded us & their proximity to the house. On Sunday evening, I began feeling uneasy about the storm & insisted we go in to town & grab a few more supplies. A storm that was supposed to hit our area on Tuesday was scheduled to hit 1am on Monday morning. We were able to find some scented candles, a lighter, & a couple of extra flashlights & headed back. That evening, I charged everything that had a power cord, bathed the children, & took care to bathe myself as we were likely to lose power. The next morning, in the 8 o'clock hour, we lost power. Almost immediately, I began catching rain water in anything I thought would hold water. For 24 hours, we sat inside the dark cabin & watched the tree limbs dance around us, sometimes catching sounds of trees falling nearby, & flushing our toilets with rain water. A constant drizzle, we knew the dirt roads would be quite sloppy in the morning. I rejoiced in the chill of the air as the coast remains quite hot & thick but dug deep to find the extra patience to allow the storm to fully pass before I lost my mind. Losing power is something millions of people have experienced due to this storm but there was something about being stuck in the middle of the woods with two small kids & no power, poor service, & no neighbors.

The next morning, - Gunner's official first birthday - Keith & I took the farm Gator & assessed the roads. We managed to move small trees & limbs that blocked our path until we approached a tree laying on a power line. It was evident smaller cars had been passing underneath it but I know nothing (or perhaps too much) to go near a power line. Our Suburban & Yukon likely wouldn't fit. We heard of another exit in the opposite direction & a quick trip revealed extremely muddy roads & another downed tree that blocked our path. The local police department was made aware of our condition & location &, while we were assured supplies could be delivered to us if we got low, we were informed they would be unable to remove the tree that blocked our path over the power line for obvious safety reasons. Our exit remained in the hands of the power company - until the groundskeeper showed up with his chainsaw. It's been many years since his back surgery - & most of his back is metal - but Rick isn't afraid of much. The size of his arms gives no indication he was, at any point in his existence, unable to move due to a severe back injury. He towers over anything he stands beside & speaks confidently. A good ole country boy, a little before 4 that afternoon, he had cleared a path for us. We headed straight to town for a restaurant experience & power. Despite my desperation to leave as soon as humanly possible, we stayed one more night & were on the road by 11a.m. the next day.

I don't recall a time I have felt such relief. However, we were completely aware of the lack of power that remained in our area & the actual barricades & mandates that prohibited our return home. My sister in Warner Robins is allowing us to stay at her house until further notice. We have yet to have power restored at our house & sewage & severe water contamination is a humongous problem with the city. To my knowledge, power remains out at the farm house. Additionally, our resources back home remain limited. Gas is hardly found & grocery store shelves remain near-empty - as has been reported to me.

I am desperate to get home. I just keep thanking my lucky stars for Rick because we might still be in the woods.Hurricane Irma has left our city & its people with a lot to clean up. For everyone who has been working tirelessly to restore our community, I am thankful. The light at the end of this crazy tunnel is getting bigger but holy cow am I ready to sleep in my own bed. (& clean up the rotting meat in my freezer.)

-A special thanks to the Doc who showed us true hospitality & let us stay in his beautiful farmhouse.

Traffic heading Northbound on I-75 in Forsyth to evacuate from Irma

The farm house

Gunner's first birthday party at the beautiful pavilion on the property of the farm house

Maggie had the most fun of any creature there

The boys' cousin, Jaxson!

On Sunday, we paid a visit to the Whistle Stop Cafe - a favorite!!

The sky darkened as the storm drew nearer. The porch was a great place to watch & wait.

Pop getting some loving before he returned home!

There was no shortage of water at this Wal-Mart!

On Sunday evening, we ate dinner by firelight at the pavilion.

Emmy roasts his first marshmallow 

Moments after the power went out Monday morning. 

Collecting rain water

Emmy making use of G-Mamma's portable DVD player, which has a remarkably long battery life!

Maggie wondering what all the fuss is about

Cooper not sweating the storm because he wasn't out in it. 

On Tuesday morning, we discovered the downed tree over the power line.

Keith assesses our other exit

Emmerson definitely helped with the collection of the rain water!

Late Tuesday morning, the sun began to come out

Whistle Stop Cafe had lost power, too.

Also my sentiments as soon as we were able to leave the farm house to venture back into Forsyth.

Southbound traffic on I-75 in Forsyth - people trying to return to their homes.

Emmerson & Maggie were so happy to stretch their legs.

Black Beauty held me in a time of great need <3

Casualties on the property at the farmhouse. 

A placid lake after the storm. 

Darkness & helplessness breeds depression. This amazing view was my silver lining.

Rick's chainsaw job of the fallen tree.

Hurricane relief heading south on I-75

Cooper stretching his legs and exploring outside for the first time in a week in Warner Robins

As soon as we rolled into Warner Robins, we spotted this monster truck & let Emmerson explore for the very first time ever!

First Friday September 2017

This past Friday, I went to my very first First Friday in my very own Downtown Brunswick!! We left the kids with the Grandparents & sampled some wine while listening to great music & socializing with some of my favorite people!!

Samantha Gilder

I reached out to Samantha because she had posted on Facebook she was in need of a few headshots for her new venture - a one-hour-a-week radio show for Full Sail University on her adventures in online dating! I was more than happy to help her out & was so honored to meet her!

Also, this sounds like some reallllllly interesting material that I need in my life!!!

Entrepreneur Crush of the Week: Marti Tolleson

Some people tell stories with their words, paint brushes or, like me, their cameras. Marti Tolleson tells hers with accessories, home decor, & apparel. Every square inch of her store, Two Friends, tells a "story". Different themes, styles, & colors compliment neighboring "stories" until, together, they tell a single, grande narrative. That is the essence of Two Friends - of Marti. As soon as I walked in, Marti's face lit up as bright as her store & the "light chatter" of every display table never ceased to peak my interest. Her ability to tell a story undoubtedly reflects her intuitive nature & the capacity to speak to an audience on so many levels. But it is the authenticity & hospitable customer service that sets her boutique aside from the rest & keeps customers coming back for more.

Originally started in Perry, GA, Two Friends was opened in 2000 by Marti & her friend, Francie. The two began with shows out of their homes & high demand, along with plenty of community support, left the business growing at a very fast rate. When Marti moved to St. Simons, however, she took a year off to quietly observe the local fashions, traffic patterns of the seasons, & what areas of the island attracted the most residents. Though the summer months on the island are the busiest, thanks to visiting out-of-towners, Marti knew she needed to focus on catering to the very people who would be by her side throughout the year. It's no surprise she gained the support of so many who have sustained her throughout the years & continue to do so. Both full-time residents & visitors are met with respect & an unforgettable experience immediately upon entering her retail space.

With a Communication Arts degree & a minor in business from Georgia Southern University, Marti opened her first business, the Social Butterfly, in 1999. But even then, she was no stranger to the world of entrepreneurship. She grew up in a family of business owners - her dad owning a feed/tractor store & her mother a retail clothing store. Finding & retaining great staff who represent the Two Friends values has been her biggest obstacle since her journey as an entrepreneur began. But it is quite obvious the seasons have fine-tuned her personnel because, upon asking what has been her greatest reward, Tolleson says, "My TF girls...each and every one of them has played an important role in making Two Friends what it is today!" Nothing is more apparent than the dedication of her staff. -I would know! I've spent over a year stalking Marti's establishment on social media (because why not?) &, though her marketing skills are basically second to none, her girls are the face of her establishment & they wear the name, Two Friends, with pride.

Marti says over the years, she has learned to, "trust your instincts, listen to your gut and the Big Man Upstairs! Trust HIM!" Though I only just met her, I recognize Marti is fierce, hard-working, & not afraid of change. In fact, she embraces it & seems more than prepared for it. Not only is she always trending with the latest fashion, she seems to have perfected the art of entrepreneurship in that she knows what people want & what people want is constantly evolving - a challenge some entrepreneurs never seem to overcome. Tolleson takes pride in her appearance, her store, & her staff. She is genuine in every sense of the word. As my official last "Entrepreneur Crush," I couldn't be more honored to have featured her. Thank you for your hard work, Marti!!

Visit Marti & her amazing staff at 295 Redfern Village, Saint Simons Island, GA 31522

Keep up with Two Friends on social media!! Facebook :: Instagram

Keep scrolling to be positively SPAMMED with photos of Marti's amazing store space!!!

Lucy, one of the two ADORABLE shop pups!!!

Entrepreneur Crush of the Week: Kate Buchanan

Tucked away in Downtown Brunswick - swaddled on a corner of banks & other buildings - is a colorful little shanty; a not-so-secret (but almost) treasure, "where vacation is a state of mind." Indigo Coastal Shanty is a funky, friendly restaurant that was opened in November of 2009 by Kate Buchanan. Veiled by the giant oak tree it rests upon, this relatively hidden restaurant has been a monument of happy memories for countless locals & visitors; a symbiotic relationship between community & earth, the old, husked inhabitant has become the center attraction of this popular gathering place.

Once the Bluebird Cafe, Kate has worked hard to maintain the building's original charm while creating a totally new atmosphere - one that allowed her to embrace her love for the types of food she prepared for her employees & at home - & one that was vastly different from her other restaurant, Cargo Portside Grill (also quite popular in Downtown Brunswick). "I knew I wanted to go smaller, have a more enjoyable schedule, & work in a cheerful, colorful, art-filled, & inspiring environment," says Buchanan. "The shanty has always been that to me, a beautiful little work-in-progress." Kate says she learned a lot during her last couple of years of ownership of Cargo, which happened to be during the recession, something that greatly impacted business. But she walked away with a clear understanding of what she wanted & didn't want. Her little "shackteau" is recession-proof & has proven it is more than capable of maintaining its title of "favorite lunch spot" for many.

Under new ownership (as of very recent!) more great things await the popular restaurant. "I was blessed to recently pass Indigo on to the new owner, Judah Lynch, who really gets what Indigo is about - a warm, friendly place that's serious about a relaxed mood, flavors & connections to the community. Judah & I can spend hours gabbing about the restaurant industry, new food ideas, & life. He's a smart, kind & talented young man & I feel good about leaving the future of Indigo in his more-than-capable hands," Kate says. Her mom, Alix Hessler (who has owned three restaurants of her own), inspired Kate to never be afraid of change. In fact, the two embrace it. According to Kate, Alix is "self-made, insanely creative, fearless, & very chameleon-like - constantly changing & evolving - the true essence of an entrepreneur." A member of the community who has made many friends & maintains a great reputation, (ask anybody!) Kate seems to be fearless in her own endeavors; strong & determined, she is starting a brand new chapter in her life to reinvent herself & open the door to new adventures. Perhaps, as business-owners (or as humans, in general!) we have a habit of becoming complacent or sticking to those things which are most familiar. To disregard the internal pull to retreat safely inside our entrepreneurial safe havens takes great courage. "I haven't decided what's next for me. Right now it's about jumping in my husband's convertible with he & our dog, Angus, & hitting the beach!"

Kate has inspired many & she will continue doing so. I can't wait to see what's next!

Visit them on Facebook or in person at 1402 Reynolds Street, Brunswick, GA!