Single mom holds things together with a laugh

Adelia Ladson The Moultrie Observer

| — Melissa Spells Bair always seems to have an air of hilarity about her and of being on the verge of bursting into laughter — and often does in conversation — but under that is an energy that is keenly focused toward her personal life goals.

“It is really hard as a single mom to juggle work and home and school,” she said.

She attributed the help of her family, especially her mother, Connie Fritz, and her Aunt Cathy to being able to make sure that her two daughters, Marie, 12, and Maegan, 9, are taken care of.

“Without the help of my family, it would be impossible,” she said.

She also said that, along with her family, her church family has been really supportive ever since she moved back to Moultrie.

“It’s important to have people you can rely on and depend on when you need them. One of the biggest blessings for me is having such a supportive church family,” she said.

Bair was born in Kentucky but moved to Moultrie, where both of her parents were raised, before the age of 2. She said she has lived all but 11 of her 34 years in Moultrie.

After high school, she attended Valdosta State University as a theater major for four semesters before deciding it wasn’t what she really wanted to do, she said. She got married and moved with her husband to Alaska, where they lived for two years. Her oldest daughter was born on Ft. Wainswright Army Base. They returned to Georgia to live in Valdosta and her youngest was born about a year later in Moultrie.

“After getting divorced, the best place for me and my girls was Moultrie. We have found a place in the community and our church which has nurtured us,” she said.

Bair is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Moultrie and said she is very active in the church, teaching a class on Wednesday nights.

“I am affectionately known as ‘Missalissa’ by my church family,” she said.

She was also given the opportunity to teach pre-school at the church during the school year, which she said has allowed her to go to school in the afternoons and some evenings. She will be going into her third year of teaching pre-school at the church this coming school year.

“Getting that job just made it easier to go back to school full time,” she said.

She said she had already decided to get her education degree before she started teaching because she felt called to teach.

Bair is full-time student at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and will graduate in December with an associate’s degree in early childhood education.

“In 2008, I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she said comically.

She said she has been accepted to Valdosta State University and hopes to start working towards her bachelor’s degree in January. She would like to teach pre-school through second grade because she prefers that age group.

“I’ll do whatever they’ll pay me to do,” she said joking.

“I think that’s when they have the most potential. I think the younger children are such a laugh. I think they’re fun,” she continued.

In addition to that, she also works as a phlebotomist at Colquitt Regional Medical Center to make extra money to support herself and her girls. She works every other weekend in the lab.

“It is hard but I know that in a few years all of the juggling will pay off. ... Knowing that I have a goal and there is a goal in the near future — to be able to provide a more stable home life for me and my girls and not having to rely on others so much,” she said.

She added that she appreciated all the help she has received but would like to be able to stand on her own two feet.

Even with her hectic schedule, she still finds time to volunteer with ACT at the Colquitt County Arts Center.

“I’ve always been a pretty melodramatic person. When I was 8, I was cast as Marta in the Moultrie Little Theatre’s production of ‘The Sound of Music.’ I knew opening night that I had found something I loved,” she said.

She said she had been in the drama club when she was in high school and has been in at least one and sometimes three or four shows a year since that time. She has also competed in one-act play competitions, at different times, and has received acting awards for four of those performances.

She said going to college for it, early on, made her realize that she did not want to do it as a job.

“I wanted to do it for fun,” she said.

As her girls have gotten older, they too, have been on-stage in productions at the arts center, sometimes even sharing the stage with their mother, in shows their grandmother, Connie Fritz, was directing, she said.

“We’re all involved in almost every show. That just makes it more entertaining... Some of my favorites have been the summer musicals,” she added.

In the fall, Bair and her family will be on-stage in ACT’s production of ‘Early Frost,’ which will be taken to the Georgia Theatre Conference One-Act Play Competition.

“I think it will be fun to take the girls to competition,” she said.

Also, in addition to theater, Bair loves to do arts and crafts projects including making jewelry, which she sometimes sells during the holidays or at the youth auctions at her church.

“My handicraft stuff is cheaper than therapy. Everything that I make and do is cheaper than therapy,” she said laughing.

She said she loves volunteering at her church and at the arts center because, along with her    arts and crafts projects, they provide an outlet for her.

“The extra-curriculars keep me sane,” she said.

She said she also reads as an outlet and sees it as something that is ‘just hers’ and is time for herself.

“It’s important to take time and do things for yourself. I don’t think you can be a good mother, especially a single mother, if you don’t have something that is just yours,” she said.

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