Guest Blog Post: Caroline Tyrrell, Age 12

A conversation for context.

My husband: “What do you want for Christmas?”

Me: “Finish renovating my office?” 

Him: “Ok.” 

He's a contractor by trade so I trust him and he has This Old House type vision for our home updates so I trust him even more.

He also lives by this motto, “If you're going to do it, do it right”.  And that, my friends, is how I found myself working all weekend emptying the office closet of stuff it’s kindly hidden from view these twenty-odd years.

And promptly was reduced to its studs.

It yielded more than a few gems, including the following interview turned essay written by my daughter Caroline when she was in 6th grade. She sat and read it out loud to us and I knew instantly that this month’s guest blogger would be my then-12 year old little girl. 

The connections embedded here make my heart melt. She gets me. We get each other. More importantly, it seems to confirm that I’ve lived by my Parenting GPS guideposts, embodied my Parenting Mission Statement and stand poised to bless the world with a truly world ready kiddo.

Without further ado, I present to you from the Closet Files, circa 2017:

*No edits have been made to spelling or grammar.

 The Life of Cara Joy Tyrrell*

by Caroline Tyrrell, age 12

Cara Joy Tyrrell is a compassionate, humble and a gifted person. Also, she is very swell and trustworthy to be around. When she is working she is very dedicated to getting the job done. How my mom is compassionate is when someone needs help with something she will step up and help them. For example, if someone is not feeling well in the community or someone at church she will bring them dinner or bread. Some reasons that she is humble and gifted is because she doesn't really want to take credit for big things and why she is gifted is at using electronics and she teaches us how to do what we don’t understand. Also here is another example for why she is gifted. If someone is sick and she really needs to make dinner, she will make dinner and take care of the person that is sick at the same time. Why my mom is swell and trustworthy is that you can say personal things or just have conversations and she will listen to you. Why she is swell to be around is she is funny sometimes and she makes the conversation way better. All these words describe Cara Joy Tyrrell.

Cara was born on June 11th, 1976 in Chester Vermont. She grew up in Chester with her father being the Superintendent of multiple schools. She did not have any brothers or sisters but instead of not having them she decided to make her own added on family by babysitting, so it felt like she had brothers and sisters. Other things she like to do during her early life was play with baby dolls and when she got older liked to do 3D puzzles on her spare time and sort her books in order. When my mom was born her maiden name was Cara Joy Ippolito. When she was in 6th grade she broke her arm in gym doing the presidential fitness test and so she could not swim all summer long. Cara went to Green Mountain Union High School until tenth grade and then she went to Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, Vermont. Cara graduated from that high school in 1994 and went afterwards to college at University of Rochester in New York. In 1998 she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in American Sign Language and Linguistics and then got her Masters degree in 1999. 

In August of 1999 Cara came home for a friend’s wedding and the friend had a brother that she was talking to a lot during the wedding. After that both of them would take turns driving long distances to see each other and have chats. They got married on May 6, 2000 and were looking forward to having a baby. My oldest sister Emma died in my mom’s belly when she was exactly at her 9 months gestation. A couple years later she had her second child who is alive. Her name is Claire. Exactly two years after Claire was born I was, her third and last child. Cara went through a lot in her early life but got through it and says that all the hard times made her the way she is now. 

Cara has had many different jobs in her lifetime. Some of them are: a full time farmer, a waitress, a nanny, a sign language teacher, a Kindergarten teacher, a teacher of the Deaf and she loves learning new things, for example crocheting. Her first job was being a waitress at a restaurant call “Raspberries and Thyme”. She was fourteen years old. Her favorite job during high school was babysitting for lots of families in her community. When she’s asked, “What was your favorite job you ever had?” she says being a nanny because it involves parenting and teaching. The two things she loves to do. One other job was teaching Deaf kids. She loved this job very much because she loved her students and communicating in American Sign Language all day long. Ten years after Cara married Jeremiah her was following his dream by farming. At first Cara didn’t think she would like it, but after trying it out a couple times she started to do it more often and became The Farmer’s Wife. Her crocheting began getting better and better and she began to learn how to make patterns of her own. She even started and Etsy shop and now she gets money for a skill she taught herself to do. All those jobs connect into her life from age fourteen to forty and she says she still has more she wants to learn.

From her earliest years Cara wanted to be a mother. As a teenager she babysat alot. As a young adult she took many nanny jobs and became part of their families. When she got married and had three lovely girls she know from the start that parenting was the job that God meant for her to do. As a mom her goals are to raise, “strong, independent children who are ready to take on the world”. She takes this job very seriously and would do anything for her children, all three of them. 

To hear about Cara's journey to motherhood, listen to Episode 14 of the Transforming the Toddler Years Podcast.