This past Thursday afternoon found tennis pro Sue Webb doing what she often does at the Lookout Mountain Club – giving lessons to a child, in this case 11-year-old Lucy Heald, who’s in the fourth grade at Fairyland Elementary School.
Time and again, Webb would hit the fuzzy yellow ball toward Heald. Time and time again, Heald would clutch her racket in her right hand, swing her right arm as powerfully as she could and rip the ball back with great accuracy and remarkable velocity.
Then she’d briefly drop her racquet into her lap, furiously move the wheels on her youth tennis wheelchair with both hands and prepare to hit the next shot Webb returned to her.
“I really like tennis,” Lucy said during a water break. “It’s fun to play with other people. And this wheelchair is a lot easier to push than my other one.”
If you’re ever asked to nominate a couple for parents of the year – or decade, for that matter – you couldn’t do much better than Cathy and Daryl Heald.