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Last week my best friend’s granddaughter participated in a pageant at her school. Marley Anne Brown was just one of many beautiful young ladies who displayed their talents for our communities to enjoy.

Her grandmother sent me photos from the event and as I viewed them and considered other young ladies displaying their talents recently, I could not help but ask, “Where did they time go?”

Butler County residents recently enjoyed the Miss Helping Hearts pageant, where proceeds benefited local families. And, in Lowndes County, the Distinguished Young Women of Lowndes County winner Carolyn Jean Forrest represented “the 45” at the program’s state competition in January, and young ladies are preparing to compete for the county title and scholarship awards in July.

Marley competed in Highland Home School’s (HHS) Petite Miss HHS competition, one of several such events held in Crenshaw County. 

Marley’s father, Justin Brown, grew up playing with my oldest daughter Jamelyn. I babysat him when they were toddlers, not yet as old as Marley, who is a first-grade student at HHS.

I perused Marley’s pageant pictures and thought of her father at that age. Doubtless many readers enjoyed local pageants, appreciating the participants, thinking of their parents at that age and wondering when they grew from infants and toddlers to young women.

My, how the time flies. Seasons fade into years, and it seems like it was just yesterday when I visited Marley’s grandmother, Candice Brown, with Jamelyn in her carrier and Justin in his playpen, to introduce myself and begin our lifelong friendship. Now, we are grandmothers together, watching their children shine in our communities.

No one can stop time, nor can we keep ourselves young and our babies small. We can, however, age with the passing years, loving and supporting our children’s children, pouring into them as extended family members.

That is what small-town communities do, and I am glad for local events, like the recent pageants, that highlight all the beauty of the blossoming generations.