On March 27, 2020, my life was forever changed with the birth – in the midst of COVID-19 – of Brooks Alan Donica. Of course, he is the most beautiful, perfect child God ever placed on the earth. It was a dazzling spot during one of the most frightening, crazy periods in history. I’ve included a FEW pictures because I want you to just see that I am not making this up – he is truly perfect!
Speaking of COVID-19 (must I????) – There are so many people who have stepped up for TCDLA to make a real difference for our members. The foremost, of course, is our COVID-19 Task Force Chair Clay Steadman. Clay is organized, smart, creative, tenacious, loyal and just quite simply amazing. Our organizational approach to this virus has been brilliant because of Clay’s leadership. We formed a task force with vice chairs Jeep Darnell, Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube, and John Hunter Smith, that had a team member in every TCDLA district ready to handle any issue that needed to be addressed.
And let’s talk about three individuals who stepped up under the leadership of the indomitable Betty Blackwell (GA-13 chair): Allison Clayton, Jeep Darnell, and Kyle Therrian. They drafted responses regarding our GA-13 efforts that were simply intellectually over the head of almost anybody. Truly three brilliant legal minds who have spent hundreds of hours making sure the rights of our neediest clients were being addressed. They continue to find ways to help our members meet the needs of our clients AND our members.
Take a look at the list of folks who stepped up to serve on our COVID-19 Task Force and ALL the resources available on the TCDLA website. Each of these individuals is a HERO. They have given when it was hard and they’ve cared about others when we were all really afraid for ourselves personally. I’ve never been prouder of TCDLA.
I hope we are close to being set free to enjoy being back together at Rusty Duncan; I will REJOICE if that happens. If it does not, we will have live streaming available (even if it does happen, that will be an option), so make sure you are signed up for Rusty Duncan. I hope it will be our coming out party of the century!
I know it’s been a tough couple of months. I pray it is almost a memory. I hope you never take one single breath for granted; and when life gives you the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you’ll dance!
Finally, thank you for the privilege, the honor, the joy of being your President. Tears run down my face as I write this. I love TCDLA – which is all of you. My life is richer, more fulfilled and forever changed because I received the gift of serving all of you. God IS good! In the words of Dr. Seuss – “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
