Commencing Into Real Life: Mom and Dad Earn Degrees, Preemie Twins Make It All Worthwhile

When Brad and Carolyn Liggett march in UC’s December Commencement ceremony on Dec. 8, perhaps they should receive two degrees each.

One for their respective fields of study, and a second for real-life experiences.

The culmination of their UC careers marks a time for celebration, both for achievement and perseverance. Few would argue that they have had their fair share of challenges, and then some.

Brad will receive his degree in marketing and digital business from the College of Business, and Carolyn will earn hers in communication from the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. Watching with pride will be many family members, friends and the Liggetts’ twin 17-month old daughters, Hailey and Kristen.

Yes, 17-month-old twins for college students in their early 20s. And the family’s story is a lot more complicated than just a head count. The Liggetts’ road to graduation was far from typical, or easy.

The couple already had an established history by the time Brad enrolled as a freshman in 2001 – they first met and started dating when he was 16 and Carolyn just 14. Carolyn followed Brad to UC in 2002.

(The strength of their bond is attested to by the beginnings of their relationship – Brad is from North Bend, on Cincinnati’s far west side, and Carolyn lived in Eastgate, all the way across town and 35 miles away. "You change your oil in your car every 3,000 miles, and I was changing it about every six weeks back then," recalls Brad.)

With that lengthy of a history, perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the couple were soon talking about marriage and even a family.

They were wed in August of 2004. Working part-time jobs around going to school, they were making steady progress on their degrees.

But they began thinking of having a baby and, as fate would have it, their efforts paid off immediately. In December of 2005, the Liggetts learned of the pregnancy and then, on the following Valentine’s Day, they learned they would be having twins.

Both had always wanted twins, and really, the odds weren’t that long – Brad’s mother is a twin, one of three sets borne to his grandmother, and his mother’s twin also gave birth to twins, so the family history was favorable.

But the pregnancy ran into difficulties. In May of 2006, Carolyn was put on bed rest – just as she was ready to take her final exams for spring quarter. "I went into the hospital during exam week, so that meant e-mailing all of my professors. I had to take my exams online. Being pregnant like that and facing exams, it was pretty stressful," says Carolyn.

The doctors tried to prolong Carolyn’s pregnancy as long as possible, but after three weeks in the hospital, they felt they couldn’t wait any longer. "They ended up taking them at 27 weeks (of gestation), so it really was a miracle that they made it," Carolyn says.

Kristen, the larger and stronger of the two, came into the world weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. Her sister, Hailey, was just 1 pound, 11 ounces.

Both babies immediately went onto life support in University Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Kristen was in the NICU for two months; Hailey for four. When Hailey came home, she was still in need of both oxygen and a feeding tube.

Carolyn recalls medicine bottles being lined up on the kitchen counter. "It was hard. You’re talking about worrying about school, but also a situation where she’s still using a feeding tube and you need to keep straight the eight different medicines that have to be given during the day."

Fortunately, the Liggetts had plenty of family support. They would need it.

Hailey showed quicker improvement at home than she had in the hospital, but still came within one day of going to Children’s Hospital for open-heart surgery that would have had very high risk. (The physicians had a last-second change of plans and decided to wait a little longer to see if a leaking heart valve would heal on its own. It did.)

By the time Hailey was four months old, her weight was up to six pounds. The discharge file with instructions on how to care for her, though, was up to seven pages.

The time in the hospital was hard on everyone, according to one of Carolyn’s best friends, Amy Tonnis, a UC student and business economics major. Amy and Carolyn became friends while working together for years at the UC Bookstore prior to the twins’ arrival.

"The whole experience, I think, has made Carolyn stronger and not one to take things for granted," Tonnis says. "It seemed like every day the twins were in the hospital, there was something else that came up. It was actually hard to look at the bright side of things, but she was down at the hospital at least three times each day. It was so hard to be in that position where you couldn’t take your babies home."

The twins have done remarkably well since, despite their start as preemies. They are now on track developmentally with all other 18-month-olds. Through UC’s Student Health Plan and then Medicaid, the Liggetts were also very fortunate to have almost all of their medical expenses covered. Brad has kept an eye on the actual costs that have been billed for their care, and that figure is now more than $2 million.

Brad was able to return to school for fall quarter, and Carolyn came back for winter quarter at the start of 2007. Brad’s mom is a trained nurse, and she and Brad’s sister were able to take shifts watching the babies.

"Leaving (the twins) was rough," Carolyn says, "but I knew I wanted to get school over with when they were so little they wouldn’t even know I was gone. Brad didn’t take off school at all, and neither one of us wanted to give up."

Says Brad, "I never would have started college or spent the money for it if I didn’t think it was important. I knew I had to complete school and still had to take care of my wife and be there for her. My priorities had to be flexible, but I knew that school still had to be one of them."

Both parents scheduled classes for Tuesdays and Thursdays. Brad would work part-time other days at his father’s company, Delta Propellers, while Carolyn would be at home with the twins.

Studying was difficult. Carolyn would try to get done what she could late at night after the twins went to bed. She also had one 45-minute break in her schedule for the days on campus, a time when she would head directly to a UC computer lab to work on homework.

The girls continued to grow and develop, the parents continued with school through summer quarter this year (both were Dean’s List students that quarter) and everything looked good for them to be able to graduate at the end of fall quarter and move on an at least slightly less stressful routine in their lives.

But then there was one more hurdle to overcome.

Carolyn, who is very fair-skinned, went to the dermatologist in September to have a mole removed from her stomach, a procedure she had been through before.

This time, the doctor called her in for her results – it was melanoma and in an advanced, more aggressive stage. He told her she would need immediate surgery, and they would have to hope it hadn’t spread beyond the immediate affected area.

So, with school ready to begin on Sept. 19, there was Carolyn on Sept. 17 having a softball-sized mass of tissue removed from her midsection.

"They had to remove three inches on either side of the spot just to make sure they got enough healthy tissue out," she says. "When we were done with that, I couldn’t even stand up straight, but I knew it was my last quarter and that I had scheduled a hard quarter of classes. So if I missed a couple of days, I would get too backed up."

She was there for her first day of classes on Thursday, Sept. 20.

The final quarter has gone by quickly. The Liggetts shared one final class together, Business Communication.

"It was interesting having them in class," says Adjunct Assistant Professor of Communication Molly Mayer. "They were the first married couple I’ve had and I’ve taught for 20 years. It was a different dynamic having them in class together. Both of them were really focused and real centered on finishing up and they both were good students."

Now the Liggetts are nearing the end of a very long, memorable journey.

"I don’t think it has fully sunk in that we’re graduating," Brad says. "The feeling is great."

"They’ve come so far," says Amy Tonnis, who will be there to watch her friends graduate. "The fact they get to do this together, that makes it even more special."

Carolyn plans to stay at home for the foreseeable future with her girls. Brad is interviewing for jobs in marketing, and says his long-range plans have been impacted by the experiences his family has gone through.

"I want to do something that is going to help other people," he says. "I’ve been in situations now where we’ve needed help from friends and family, and now I’d like to help as many people as I can."

A few nice, calm years might be enjoyable at this point, but the Liggetts say their journey has prepared them for whatever direction is next in life.

"You can have a feeling of ‘Why does this keep happening to us?’" Brad says. "But when you sit back and think about it, we’ve been through so much and it really is just life. We don’t have time and energy to waste as people. You just have to learn from things and build from them."

For more UC Commencement news: http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=7538

Link to UC's official Commencement Web site: http://www.uc.edu/commencement/