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The Wide World of Merry Morgan b y C a r o l B a d a r a c c o P a d g e t t
now includes a baby under age two, she says, “It’s just a fun process.” And of working with her husband, in particular, she gushes, “I love to work with my husband. He brings so much knowledge. He knows the area so well, knows how homes are built, and he’s just a great resources for someone who’s buying a house.” When it comes to the challenges of opening a business during Covid, Morgan says, “As far as life goes, in general, I feel like every- one thinks of the challenges. But in climbing Mount Everest, and being able to find joy in the process, has given me an attitude of grate- fulness and thankfulness.” She adds, “I got to a place of quiet, from all the noise of life, and I got closer to God and to all the things we have to be thankful for.” This outlook on life that the
Merry Morgan
Everest summit gave her is now something Morgan tries to draw upon and hopefully pass along in her business life, helping people find amazing properties on 30-A. As she puts it, “Some people look at real estate and think that it’s a daunting process. We try to take away the stress and help people
enjoy the experience, to help people enjoy the process and not find it to be so daunting and overwhelming. We take the stress on ourselves and make it as easy as possible for people.” Then there are some other, more philosophical lessons that summiting Mount Everest has helped Morgan uncover and share with others. “I wasn’t a super athlete when I was young,” she notes. “But I was a pediatric nurse for a few years, and the experience
Photos courtesy of Merry Morgan
S he and her team know 30-A real estate inside and out, but Merry Morgan of Inlet Beach knows much more. And it’s the kind of “more” that circles back around and makes her an even better business woman. A real estate broker and owner of Summit 30A Luxury Realty in Grayton Beach, Morgan is also one of only 600 women in history to summit Mount Everest. “I summited May 23, 2019, right before all the 2020 Covid [crisis] happened,” she describes of the stunning feat. “I went from Tibet, was up there around 50 days, and this was my third of seven summits,” which include Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Morgan’s timing in her summit of Everest is also stunning in a solemn way: 2019 was not only a treacher- ous year of Covid for the world, it was the deadliest year ever for climbers on Mount Everest. This fact makes Morgan’s undertaking even more hard-core and increas- ingly bittersweet. In her quest to reach the summit, Mor-
gan climbed all night alongside a Sherpa interestingly named “Karma”. Although she was in a long line of climbers, “I got to be on top of Everest for three minutes that year, alone, just me and Karma. What a special blessing.” All the training, the discipline, the Iron Mans, marathons, and other athletic endeavors (hours on the treadmill in hiking boots while wearing a 30-pound backpack, for instance) that Morgan used leading up to her summits of mountains around the globe have turned out to be strengths she uses in her business today—a business that opened in January of 2021. Morgan’s husband, Nic Henderson, is a 30-A native, builder and developer, owner of Henderson Construction Custom Homes, and also a realtor and consultant for his wife’s company. The pair are joined by realtor Taylor Henderson, Henderson’s daughter and Morgan’s stepdaughter. Of her family team, which
opened my eyes to the fact that life is a precious gift and that we shouldn’t waste a second. We should live life to the fullest.” And so the journey continues. The realtor-climber- dreamer was training for an Iron Man in New Zealand before lockdown shut a door on it. But next up, she has her sights set on a climb of Mount Elbrus in Russia. “It can be done in 8-10 days,” she notes. “It depends on if the mountains are open and we’re able to travel. And then maybe Denali in Alaska. My goal is to do all the summits, eventually.”
merrymorgan@summit30a.com @summit30aluxuryrealty
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