The Floyd Family: Overcoming Life's Obstacles with Love

By Rosemary Floyd and Olivia Abrams | Photos Tori Steyne Harper

My husband, Daniel, and I met while both working at the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office. He was a deputy, and I was a 911 dispatcher. We started dating in October 2007 and married on March 21, 2009. We both grew up in Newberry County, Daniel in the Silverstreet area and I in the Whitmire area. Daniel graduated from Mid Carolina High School, and I graduated from Whitmire High School and furthered my education with an associate degree in criminal justice from Piedmont Technical College.

Daniel is currently still employed by the Newberry County Sheriff’s Office, as the Jail Administrator at the county’s Detention Center. I am now a Regional Manager for CAHEC Management, where I manage properties for affordable housing.

Our life has had some ups and downs. We struggled with infertility at the beginning of our marriage. We were finally blessed with our daughter, Cora, then 2 years later our son, Samuel. During this time, Daniel was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which he has coped very well with and thanks to medical infusions he has been able to keep his symptoms at bay. On Easter of 2022, we got a huge surprise and found out we were expecting our 3rd child, only to realize 2 weeks later it would be number 3 and 4. Our twins were born 6 weeks early and spent some time in the NICU. After 2 weeks, our son, Kaysen, came home, and then our daughter, Jensen, a week later. Even with the two newest additions of our family who arrived in November, our family is not complete without our household pets: Broc, a 14-year-old chihuahua, Zora, a 6-year-old pit bull/lab mix, Binx, our cat, and three chickens.

Our oldest daughter, Cora, who will be starting middle school in the fall, was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age six. Despite the many trials and difficulties that may come with that, we continued to support her and watch her grow into the beautiful, intelligent twelve-year-old that she is today. She has a great love for reading a variety of books and spends much of her time reading. She also enjoys learning about different animals in her environment and being able to go outside and find some of them.

Our oldest son, Sam, who is entering 4th grade in the fall, is very involved with multiple sports. He plays football and soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the spring. He has been playing and has created a passion for all these sports since he was old enough to start and these activities definitely keep us busy. He also just participated in the Newberry County School District production of The Lion King Jr.

The unexpected news of the Floyd twins arriving in late 2022 was certainly a huge blessing in disguise. They are now seven months old and doing all the things an average seven-month-old would do: standing up with assistance, trying to crawl, and be active in any way. But months before I found out I was pregnant with two beautiful babies, my mother, Kay Alexander Ammons, was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. Though she fought for a little over a year, she was unable to meet the twins on this side of heaven. Before she passed, though, we found out the gender of one of the babies and I was able to tell her in secret before anyone else knew. Because her death took such a toll on our family, we decided that we wanted to honor her in a special way, and we knew that it would be meaningful to include the twins in this honor. We decided to name our baby boy, Kaysen Alexander, using her first and maiden name.

Furthermore, our family of six is active in our community and are also active members of one of Prosperity’s local churches, Wightman United Methodist Church. We have helped in the past on mission trips and other activities sponsored by our church home. Currently, Daniel plays an active role in the nonprofit organization, Cooking Que for Christ. The group has actively organized and carried out many cooks in the past few years to help raise money for people in our community that may be in need. We thoroughly enjoy being able to work alongside our friends and church family to help those around us and they work hard to ensure their Boston butts are always very delicious!

Moreover, our family has continued to grow and thrive in the most recent years of our life! Though our children definitely keep us busy, and, on our toes, we are beyond grateful for the life that we live!