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Our People: Learning, loving family

Mary Fanelli Ayala grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs - Hatboro, Pennsylvania. Her parents owned a restaurant. They adopted her and her siblings into a diverse home. She is Hispanic/Irish, her sister is Chinese/Italian, and her brother is Filipino/Irish. Ayala grew up in a close-knit, traditional, Italian-American family.

She loves learning and is passionate about language and culture, travel, music, and education. She studied in Spain, and was later awarded a Fulbright scholarship to pursue research in Mexico City, where she lived for five years.

She has done many things for work in her life - factory work, restaurants, stores, banking, marketing; she even owned a business designing, making and selling women's clothing.

She is the mother of two university graduates who both work as speech-language pathologists. Her spouse, Jon Barr, is associate professor of digital film-making at ENMU in Portales.

In the community she is active with First Presbyterian Church, Leadership Portales, the Chamber Ambassadors, RGH Foundation, and Portales Arts Council and was excited to recently join WIN (Women's Initiative Network.) Ayala works on many educational committees and serves on two international boards.

When you were a kid, what did you think you'd be doing as an adult?

No surprises here... although I didn't ever really think much about what I'd be doing as a career, when we played as kids, we always played "school" (and I was always the teacher).

What's your idea of a perfect day?

My perfect day would be spending time with my husband, my kids, my mother, and my sister. Life has pulled all of us in so many different directions that every moment I get to be with my family is precious.

What do you do when you're not working?

I'll tell you when I find out.

What's the best gift you've ever given?

My time. Everything else can be nice, but it's replaceable and someone else can always find something a little bit better. But when you invest your time and full attention for someone, it's priceless.

What's your favorite taste? Smell?

Same answer for both: A home-cooked meal with family or friends; potluck dinners at church. Nothing is more enticing to the senses or to the spirit than breaking bread with people you love.

Tell us about your parents.

They created the perfect kind of home where all of our friends (and even the neighbors' kids, once we grew up) wanted to hang out because my parents were warm, welcoming, safe, and accepting. There was always good food and lots of laughter in our house, and we were taught the value of hard work, honesty, respect, and a good education. We were never led to believe that there was any limit to what we could do if we worked hard enough.

What is your favorite quote?

"Regardless of the stress I'm under, most days I'm managing blessings." - Lysa Terkeurst

If you could master one instrument, what would it be?

I always wanted to play the guitar, but the nuns wouldn't let me. I took piano lessons for over 10 years --and I enjoyed it - but you couldn't take a piano with you to a party or on the beach the way you could with a guitar. If I could perfect an instrument, it would be my voice, since I take that everywhere and I love to sing.

Tell us how you met your spouse.

Jon and I met when I was in grad school, and we dated for a short time then, but it was almost 20 years before we eventually re-connected (10 years ago) and got married. He is incredibly smart, kind, talented, and generous, and those twenty years gave us just the perfect amount of time and life experience to become who we were meant to be and to truly appreciate each other.

Tell us about your greatest individual accomplishment.

I'm tempted to say that it was raising two good-hearted, talented, and dedicated kids pretty much on my own. But that's not entirely true because this community provided wonderful support for me during the roughest years, my children were active agents in becoming the terrific young adults they are, and my husband has been a loving step-father and role model to them for the last decade. That being said, I am proudest of them.

- Compiled by The News Correspondent D'Nieka Hartsfield

 
 
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