Life better than imagined for Miranda Hamilton
Even the best laid plans can go awry. For Miranda Hamilton, despite unexpected twists and turns, life surprised her by turning out better than she could have imagined.
A Mississippi native, Miranda Hamilton grew up in the small town of Fulton, a place where everyone knew everyone, and where friends spent weekends hanging out in the Ford dealership parking lot or riding four wheelers. Miranda attended the only high school in town, Itawamba Agricultural High School, which, contrary to the name, did not offer classes related to crops or livestock. She explored a variety of avenues, including student council, the drama club, and the school’s weekly video news report, but she quickly discovered a favorite subject in science and, eventually, pursued a science-based career.
“I was accepted into the Occupational Therapy program in the School of Health Related Professions at the University of Mississippi Medical Center,” Miranda said. “The program began with a summer semester, so my parents moved me to Jackson. All the other students and the professors were so kind, but I could not make myself love the classes. I was also not happy living in Jackson and being so far from my family. At the end of the summer, I called my parents crying, wanting to come home. The hardest part was the disappointment I could hear in my dad’s voice.”
Her father’s reaction motivated Miranda to find a career path she truly loved. After moving back home, she took a semester off to think through her future. Over time, her advisor at Ole Miss suggested she look into Medical Technology.
“I researched the field and spoke with someone from my hometown who worked as a medical technologist,” Miranda said. “I knew it was exactly what I wanted to do as my career. I started classes in the spring and was finally happy to have a solid goal in mind.”
During this time, Miranda had been dating someone for nearly two years - long distance, as he attended a different college in Mississippi.
“He called me one day out of the blue and broke up with me,” Miranda said. “I was devastated. Luckily, I had two fantastic roommates and friends at Ole Miss who were there to listen to me cry and make me laugh.”
After a couple of months, a friend insisted on taking Miranda to a Cinco de Mayo party at a fraternity house. Reluctantly, Miranda tagged along, only agreeing in order to spend time with her friend. Once at the party, though, Miranda was introduced to a guy named Jimmy.
“He was so nice, and I enjoyed talking to him,” she said. “It ended up being a lot of fun until another friend of mine at the party had a little too much fun - as often happens at college parties - and got sick. That was my cue to leave and get her home.”
The spring semester came to an end, and while most students left campus for the summer, Miranda began classes to make up for the semester she missed. Almost a month after their initial meeting, Miranda got a call from none other than Jimmy.
“He told me that he would be in Oxford for a friend’s wedding the next weekend and he would like to take me out for dinner,” she said. “I told him that I’d love that. For our date we went to Memphis and ate dinner and then went on a horse and carriage ride. Jimmy was the perfect gentleman.”
After that night in Memphis, Jimmy went back to Long Beach, where he was working a summer job at a chemical engineering Co-Op at Dupont DeLisle. This time, however, there was no waiting for another call.
“We talked on the phone every night that summer, and we became an official couple without realizing it,” Miranda said. “We both finished the fall and spring semesters at Ole Miss, with Jimmy graduating and being accepted into the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s School of Medicine.”
As Jimmy started medical school in Jackson, Miranda relocated to Tupelo to fulfill the last of her medical technology degree requirements. Between daily phone calls and frequent trips to Jackson, their relationship continued to grow.
“We went to the coast one weekend to visit Jimmy’s family, and he surprised me by proposing on the beach,” Miranda said. “We planned a wedding for December 18, 2004. We were married, and I moved to Jackson to start our lives together. My dad was quick to point out the irony of the situation - that I had been so upset to live in Jackson a few years earlier, but I was jumping at the chance after getting married.”
Since they were both new to the medical field, Miranda and Jimmy juggled vastly different schedules - she worked nights while he worked days - but nonetheless they managed to find a routine. That routine, however, would be short-lived.
“After a one-year anniversary trip to Disney, we found out we were expecting our first child, Ally,” Miranda said. “I was terrified of, one, being responsible for a tiny, helpless human and, two, how I was going to work nights with a baby and no family nearby.”
As luck would have it, Miranda found a daytime position in the microbiology of the laboratory. She began her new position following maternity leave and was thrilled to discover that she absolutely loved it.
“It may seem strange to most people for someone to be excited about bacteria growing, but it was fantastic to me,” she said. “My co-workers were fantastic, as well. It was my dream job.”
True to form, fate had other plans. After the birth of their second child, Anna Kate, Jimmy was in his internal medicine residency, which meant working often on the weekends. Similarly, Miranda’s job required some weekend and holiday responsibilities, leading them to make another change.
“I found an opening at an oncology clinic in the laboratory,” Miranda said. “I absolutely loved the co-workers and the patients. I learned so many lessons from the patients, like how to cherish each day, to remain positive through trials, and to never take life or your family for granted.”
Soon after starting work at the oncology clinic, Miranda and Jimmy’s younger daughter frequently became sick, with visits to the pediatrician nearly every week. By this point, Jimmy had completed his residency requirements, ultimately allowing Miranda to step back from her job to care for their daughters.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Miranda said. “This had never been in my plans. At first it was a struggle to figure out what to do to fill our days. Eventually we fell into a daily routine, and it turned out that being with my girls was the most wonderful job in the world.”
As Miranda and Jimmy’s children grew, so did the discussions around school choices. Contrary to their original plans, however, the Hamiltons were drawn toward a different path.
“Jimmy and I both attended public school,” Miranda said. “We had always planned on our children attending public schools. Jimmy’s parents had been in public education ever since they graduated from college. Imagine our surprise when Jimmy’s mom told us that we needed to check out St. Andrew’s Episcopal School for our children. We reluctantly contacted the admissions office at St. Andrew’s to set up a tour and a visit for Ally, who was four at the time. Jimmy and I fully expected our visit to be very uptight and proper. We were 100 percent wrong on that assumption! The moment we walked into the front area of the Lower School, we could feel a special, intangible something. I claim that it was magic! The faculty and staff were all so welcoming and open. There was a huge sense of community and inclusiveness that permeated every building on campus. Ally had a fantastic time with her host class and couldn’t stop talking about ‘my school’ in the car. Jimmy and I knew that we had to do whatever it took for our children to attend St. Andrew’s.”
After the Hamiltons welcomed their third child, Mason, in 2013, they decided to follow Jimmy’s dream of sub-specializing in cardiac electrophysiology. He was accepted into a fellowship program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis School of Medicine, and the family prepared to move out of Mississippi. Soon after settling in Indiana and starting over in a new community, Miranda’s world was once again thrown off its axis when her father passed away suddenly from Stage 4 lung cancer.
“It was a complete shock,” she said. “The trip back to Indiana from the funeral was a blur. It was hard to be in a place where I had no support after such a loss. Jimmy had to work long hours as a fellow and flew back to Jackson to work every other weekend. His beloved Nana passed away in October that same year. Those first months in Indiana were extremely difficult emotionally. We were lucky that an excellent school was about two miles from our neighborhood, and I threw myself into volunteering as much as I could, with my favorite opportunity being helping kindergarten children learn to read.”
Indiana offered many opportunities for the Hamilton children, providing a range of diverse activities and new friends. While they grew to love Indiana, however, the family yearned to return to Mississippi - and especially to St. Andrew’s. As soon as Jimmy completed his fellowship, that dream became a reality. Today, Jimmy works as the section chief of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
“I was ready to hit the ground running to get involved again in Mississippi through church, school, and the children’s extracurricular activities,” Miranda said.
The Hamiltons are active members at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in the Reservoir area, where Miranda teaches children’s Sunday School and serves on the Nominations Committee and the Children’s Council. Oldest daughter Ally is a cheerleader and member of the archery team at St. Andrew’s; Anna Kate dances with the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy; and Mason is involved in Cub Scouts and baseball.
Since returning to St. Andrew’s, Miranda has continued to dedicate much of her time to volunteering.
“I truly love volunteering with the St. Andrew’s Parents’ Association (SAPA),” she said. “It feels wonderful to give back to the school that has meant so much to our family. My involvement with SAPA started out as filling in a few times for other parents at events. From there, someone recommended that I become a room parent. I was then given larger roles like planning Egypt Day for our fifth graders, second grade coordinator and Lower School coordinator.”
As her experience with SAPA evolved, Miranda took on more leadership positions, ultimately getting involved with Arts on the Green. Over the years, she has served as t-shirt chair, fashion show co-chair, auction co-chair, and this past year as Arts on the Green chair-elect.
“I attended all the regular steering committee meetings and was completely blown away by the creativity and planning abilities of that wonderful group of women,” she said. “Bethany Farr (2020 chair) and Mary Clift Abdalla (2020 co-chair) did a fantastic job selecting their committee, and the event was going to be phenomenal. Then Covid-19 ruined everything. It was heartbreaking to see months and months of planning and hard work not turn into something tangible.”
While this year’s Arts on the Green will look vastly different from years prior, Miranda looks forward to the event through a lens of creativity, perseverance, and trust that everything will work itself out exactly as it should - and even better.
“I’m hopeful that Arts on the Green will give our school and our community a small sense of normalcy during this time when nothing is quite normal,” she said. “Having the event in an all-virtual format is actually quite exciting, as friends and St. Andrew’s alumni from all over the world can participate. That is what Arts on the Green is all about - coming together to celebrate the arts and diversity!”
