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Student Wife and Mother Conquers it All
By Christine Hernandez-Johnson
Family
Portrait |
Loretta Akins, 35, a West Virginia coal miner’s daughter, is a full
time student and mother. She is raising four children, Krystal, 14, Codey,
12, Courtney, 11, and Dillon (Bubba), 7. There was a time in her life
when she was a self-proclaimed Florida beach bum, but there's no room for beaches
in her schedule now.
“I am a traditional student, full time during the day, with one night
class. That makes it hard on my husband, but somehow it all works,” says
Akins, who is busy at every moment when she is not in her Mars Hill College
classes.
Her children keep an unrelenting schedule of activities: orthodontist
appointments, practices, games and performances. They participate in
chorus, band, football, baseball, basketball and softball.
“My life is at school, the house, on a field or on a court,” says
Akins. Since she is "…going to be there anyway," she agreed
to be a Baseball Commissioner for the North Buncombe Athletic Association. During
basketball season she keeps score, and during football season, she is the Team
Mom, the one with the bullhorn and bell.
Volunteering in
Dillon's 1st grade Classroom |
The children’s homework dominates the afternoon as Akins stands by to
help. In between homework shifts, she does two loads of laundry every
day. To keep family structure, Akins sits them all down to a full meal
every night. “Every now and then I can get away with some Manwiches or
something like that, but they want their meat, potatoes, bread and vegetable.”
“I have a big calendar on the wall and everyone is a color. That
color will catch my eye to let me know that I have to be somewhere.”
Having four children involved in sports keeps everyone in the family
running. “There’s practice here and there, sometimes at
the same time, and me and my husband will split to be with one and I will be
with the other. If it is a practice, I drop my oldest daughter with a
cell phone to stay with one of the kids. I promised them that if they
were in a game I would be there and I would support them 100 percent."
Akins grew up in McDowell County, West Virginia, in coal country. Mars Hill
students on service and mission trips often visit the county where she was
born and raised.
She attended two years of Community College when she was younger. She
was a sign language specialist and worked during the day and attended school
at night, but it was too difficult to manage as a single mother. “I would
work during the day and my Daddy would keep my daughter, but I was missing
a lot. It was too much.”
She moved to the Florida Panhandle, where she spent as much time on the beach
as she could. It was there that she met her current husband Ronnie, whose parents
live in Candler. They relocated to the Asheville area, but she still misses
the beach.
Volunteering in
Courtney's Class |
The decision to return to college now was partly due to encouragement from
Ronnie. “Ronnie had been telling me to go back to school.” They
have been married nearly eight years, and with the children getting older,
Akins felt she was running out of time to finish school. “If I
was going to go back, it was now or never.”
The family agreed to the financial sacrifices that had to be made so that
she could focus on school and not have to work. “My husband agreed that
he would take on all of our bills. We live in a small trailer. We let the van
go back, and we cut the cable and the house phone.”
Akins is a special education major, hoping to work for North Buncombe when
she graduates from Mars Hill. During the school year she runs without
stopping, but during the summer she longs for the water. There are no beaches
in Western North Carolina, but you will find her poolside at the Barnardsville
Recreation Center with her children.
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