Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracie and Cheryl Parsa-Brown.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
February 16, 2021: Dallas, Texas. Icemageddon, the costliest natural disaster in Texas history, and a failed power grid combined to create power outages and broken water lines, adversely affecting close to 10,000,000 people throughout the South. Along with most of Texas, Dallas residents suddenly found themselves paralyzed without power, water, and food, including my Tracie.
Cheryl: I was one of the lucky ones as I had power and water. With plenty of food in the fridge, freezer, and pantry and no place to go, I proceeded to cook day and night throughout the storm. On day three of the storm, after watching so many people share their panic and fear via social media, Tracie’s pitiful face in that now infamous orange hoodie on Facebook completely stopped me. Her words, “Day three. No power. No water. No food.” shot straight through me like nothing had. The distress I saw in those beautiful brown eyes I had admired for so long from afar called my heart to action. Friends for years on social media, I knew from her posts that we were downtown neighbors, so there was a good chance I could help her. I reached out, or as she likes to tell it now, I slid into her DMs! “I have food! If you can get here, I can feed you.” I private message my soon-to-be best friend and future wife.
Tracie: I was so excited and nervous. Although I knew her from Facebook, meeting her in person was jarring.
Cheryl: I will never forget the excitement of packing her warm food. It felt like I was packing my heart and it in the bag. Not only was I grateful to be able to help someone, but I was also excited about meeting the person I had admired for years. And, yes, I had for years thought she was so beautiful! While packing venison chili with extra cheese, Moroccan chicken, and peppers for her with garlic toast, she announced, “I’m on my way!” Waiting inside Zaza’s foyer, I saw Tracie slowly descending on the ice from McKinney Ave. As her car came to a sliding stop atop the ice, I emerged from the warmth and safety of the building. I was immediately met with a biting cold like I had never felt. I could only imagine how cold she was coming from her home with no heat. The situation was undoubtedly dire for her, as well as so many.
As Tracie emerged from the car, I sat the steaming bag down on the ice and flung my arms into the air as an unspoken invitation to hug. “Oh, no! I can’t hug you,” Tracie said. I haven’t had a shower in three days!” “Get over here!” My smile from ear to ear quickly demanded. I hugged her as tightly as possible for what seemed like the longest and best ten seconds of my life. I can still feel that hug. The truth is, we slid into more than DMs and driveways that day. We slid right into each other’s hearts.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road? If not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Over the past two years of marriage, we have experienced challenges of all types, from typical living under the same roof adjustments to facing the sudden death of Tracie’s brother Jeff in a tragic workplace accident to the passing of their 14-year-old fur baby Jaxx, and finally Cheryl’s survival of a life-threatening thyroid storm that required her to be hospitalized for 6 days where she did not recognize Tracie or her son. It was heartbreaking and scary—a true challenge in our early marriage. Year two was spent grieving and recovering emotionally, mentally, and physically. Through all these devastating life challenges, we learned that we could depend on one another – come what may – and that we were no longer facing life’s most difficult challenges alone. These things that could have destroyed our new marriage solidified our commitment to our forever vows. We did that and renewed our vows in Puerto Vallarta in November 2023.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Tracie has been in education for the past 27 years, with 26 of those years spent in public education. Currently, she serves as the superintendent for a national network of preschools that offers formal Montessori-inspired educational programs to underserved communities at no cost to the family. Cheryl is a self-employed interior designer specializing in residential and commercial interior design. Over the past 35 years, her focus has been divided between her contrasting passions: restoring and renovating historic homes and creating sleek, warm, modern interiors.
What makes you happy?
We enjoy spending quality time together, traveling, and creating content for our shared social media platforms, Tracie and Cheryl (Wife Talk Time), where we have grown a beautiful and diverse community worldwide! Working on our relationship and creating our future together is only second to sharing laughter and hope with each other and the world around us. Sharing the stories of our same-sex, interracial, age-gap relationship allows us to add valuable messages of equality, inclusion, acceptance, and forgiveness as we model love to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. This stage is an honor and ultimately keeps us inspired daily.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tracie_and_cheryl
- Youtube: @tracie_cheryl
Image Credits
Braden Harris Photography
