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Carolina on Their Minds: The Merritt's Family Story
By Marybeth G. Cale
Published Summer 2008
“I have great friends. I love going to the pool—and I love to surf!” seven-year-old John exclaims. It seems as if he was somehow just meant to live here. “He was five months old when I dunked him in the water for the first time at my family’s pool,” his mother proudly shares. “I told him it was sink or swim, and he was swimming in no time.” By the time little John Merritt was four years of age, he was a resident of Brunswick County with his very own surfboard.
But the story begins long before this endearing beach boy rode his first wave here in southeastern North Carolina. It all started with his parents, Tricia and Kenny, who met about a decade ago.
Tricia Merritt describes her youth with sheer joy in her voice, telling stories of long summer days in her hometown on the North Shore of Long Island, New York, where she first fell in love with coastal living. One of eight children, Tricia talks about the idyllic childhood memories that started right after the sun rose each morning when she would jump on her bike and make her way to the beach, returning home just minutes before sunset each evening.
The door-to-shore proximity became just a hometown memory when Tricia and her high school friends made a cross-country trip out to Colorado. In sharp contrast to her younger years, she opted for the landscape of the Rocky Mountains when they landed in Vail after having explored some other towns along the way.
“We were just three girls, the best of friends, who drove our three cars cross-country; having $1,500 to each of our names,” Tricia says. “We thought we were rich and could do anything—so when someone told us we should head up to Vail to live, we figured, sure—why not?” Her spontaneity and sense of adventure in that moment made history in a bigger way than she could have imagined at the time—for there was a boy named Kenny, a “military brat” who grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with summers spent in Ocean City, New Jersey, who was about to become a big part of Tricia’s life.
Kenny, who Tricia describes as “one of the most personable, wonderful people you could ever meet,” had attended Scottsdale Culinary Institute, making that area his home for five years before he decided to move to Vail for the next chapter in his own adventure. He had only been there two months, working as a chef for Hyatt Hotels, when Tricia “came down off the mountain” after snowboarding one day to find him cooking in the outdoor restaurant there. “He told me a joke that I can’t even remember now,” she says, “but I do remember telling my friend how cute he was.” In January of 1998, they went on their first date.
“We fell in love so quickly,” Tricia says. “Three weeks after our first date we were literally spending every free moment together. And, in November of that year, he asked me to marry him. His dad, who was a brilliant, very decorated major in the United States Army, had passed away in 1990. Kenny had never had the opportunity to visit his grave at Arlington National
Cemetery, and so we went to visit it. Kenny brought along a laminated photo of the two of us to place on his dad’s grave, and I let him have a moment there before we left the cemetery. After that, we walked over to Jefferson Memorial and Kenny proposed on the steps there.”
Just months later, in May of 1999, they celebrated their love with a “big New York–style wedding” back in her hometown, where they decided to stay. In January 2001, their son, John, was born.
After having lived in the serene Colorado mountains, it didn’t take long for Tricia and Kenny to realize that the commute into Manhattan was not for them. Of course, it wasn’t the mountains they yearned for—but the desire to recreate what was so special about their “days gone by”—Tricia’s Long Island beach experience and Kenny’s summers visiting family on the Jersey Shore. Their vision for the future started to take shape, and at its center was life in a relaxing seaside town with a climate warm enough to enjoy the ocean year-round.
But first, another stop—almost halfway between New York and North Carolina, to a town called Bel Air, just north of Baltimore, Maryland.
“It was a great opportunity for Kenny to work at Hyatt again, where they had terrific benefits for our family,” Tricia says. “The cost of living in that region hadn’t yet peaked and so we were able to build a great house. But I was restless immediately after relocating there. And we weren’t even in our house yet when my mother stopped in on her way back home from North Carolina and shared the news that she had plans to move down this way.”
Tricia’s telling smile spreads across her face. “Kenny said to me, ‘I guess we are going to be moving again too, aren’t we?’” and Tricia’s response, naturally, was “absolutely we are!”
She always had Carolina on her mind when she thought of the perfect seaside environment.
“I had even dreamed of going to ECU when I was younger because I had spent time in the area on frequent vacations with friends,” Tricia says. “I was just always feeling drawn to the Carolina coast.”
Tricia’s mom and stepfather relocated into their own Carolina house in March 2004. By the spring of 2005, Tricia and Kenny were ready to follow. They started to search online for real estate and discovered Magnolia Greens. Tricia, who was working for Comcast in Maryland, decided to put out “feelers” for work in the Wilmington area. She started with Time Warner Cable. Unfortunately, the manager told her, there were no openings—but he would welcome the chance to meet with her the next time she was visiting North Carolina.
Nonetheless, Kenny and Tricia forged ahead with their dream of giving their son the same kind of fond memories they both had as young children playing on the beach. They decided to put their Maryland house on the market. The Realtor brought the paperwork to Tricia and Kenny and within minutes after the contracts to list their home were signed, the telephone rang. “It was a 910 area code, so I figured it had to be someone from Magnolia Greens,” Tricia says, “but would you believe it was the guy from Time Warner Cable, calling to tell me that there was an opening and asking if I could interview immediately?” Her eyes twinkle with excitement as she shares more.
“The house was officially listed the following Friday, and I interviewed in Wilmington that next Monday. On Tuesday, we had checked out of our hotel and I was heading out to the beach in my flip-flops and baseball cap when Time Warner Cable called to find out if I could come back in. I said that I wasn’t even dressed appropriately and they told me, “in Wilmington, everyone wears flip-flops all the time—come on back!’” And, of course, they offered her the job.
In the spirit of total synchronicity, their home sold later that same week and, within one very busy month, they were on their way to North Brunswick County.
“I love it here—the beach, the climate, the people,” says Tricia. “My friends here already feel like sisters. Kenny and John, who are like two peas in a pod, go surfing together, do everything together—we are all just so happy to live here.”
Tricia’s enthusiasm is infectious. She is unquestionably the perfect person to serve in her current role as Chair of the Social Committee at Magnolia Greens.
Together, their energy is the cornerstone of many successes, most recently illustrated in the opening of their own store, Coastal Coverings and Closets, located on Highway 17 in Leland. This family-owned business offers window covering and storage solution products along with installation services that meet the growing demands of the Brunswick County region. The business gives Tricia and Kenny the flexibility to make parenting their first priority.
“John comes first,” Tricia says, beaming. “Kenny is involved with John’s baseball team, and when he’s not working at GE as a chef for Sodexho, we work together to make sure our business schedule gives us as much time as possible with John. I volunteer at John’s school, Roger Bacon, and we both do what we can to make sure our family always comes first”.
“Every door we have come to has just opened up for is to make all of this happen,” Tricia says in a pensive moment, clearly grateful to finally be living out her Carolina dream.
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