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Pictured above 1. Mariah Lojek & Sailor Marie 2. Carol Anne & Liam Watts 3. Jacqueline & Calvin Scott 4. Ashley & Michael Coe
FINALLY, I’M A MOM Mariah Lojek & Sailor Marie (7mos), Dedham, MA
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Carol Anne & Liam Watts, Hudson, NH
When Mariah and her husband welcomed baby girl Sailor Marie to the world in the early moments of March 2020, Covid-19 hadn’t yet upended daily life as we once knew it. But by the time mom, dad, and baby left the hospital to start settling into their Dedham home as a newly-formed trio, it had escalated to a global health crisis. Parenting during a pandemic is a new kind of daunting. For Mariah, one of the hardest parts has been coming to terms with maintaining a safe physical distance from her friends and family as she celebrates new motherhood. Still there’s no suppressing her elation that this long-awaited chapter, a lifelong dream, has begun. “I’ve wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember, so not even 2020 can make me feel less thrilled about it,” she says, sharing that it helps that Sailor Marie might be sunshine in tiny human form. “She’s a happy baby. It just takes one laugh from her to turn hard days back to pure joy.”
As a student at St. Anselm’s College in 2003, Carol Anne was late for class a lot. It can happen when you work retail 30-plus hours a week. “I’d arrive straight from my job, in my business blazer, and then I’d always stay after class to apologize to the instructor and ask for my tardiness to be excused,” she explains, citing the college’s strict attendance policy. She wasn’t the only one staying after class for the same reason: “I remember the first time I saw Liam, rolling into class in his blue mechanic shirt from his job at a motorcycle shop. I thought he was cute right away.” The late-arrivers struck up an instant friendship, and the rest is history. The pair returned to St. A’s eleven years later to get married, and took their first photo as husband and wife in the very classroom where they met. “We were probably a tiny bit late for our wedding, too” she admits. And in case you were wondering about the subject of the course that brought
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