McCray-Taylor Family

Molly and Ty met in 2009 at Fort Rucker, Alabama. Molly was there working to facilitate the upgrade on the army's Apache helicopter and Ty was an instructor, teaching young soldiers aircraft hydraulic maintenance.  They met through a mutual friend and after a lot of convincing, Molly agreed to take Ty on a date. He was hoping for McDonald's, but she insisted on crab legs at a place called Pop's. Fortunately for Ty, they had burgers. He charmed her to the best of his ability and she fell madly in love. Who can resist a man in uniform? They dated for almost a year until Ty was returned to be stationed in Hawaii (again). They stayed distant friends even if deep down she knew Ty was the one... Fast forward 10 years.

While Molly and Vivian were stationed in Korea, Ty and Molly reconnected through a mutual friend. They started talking again and instantly hit it off. Vivian was 2 at the time and she used to steal the phone from her mom and would hide in the closet to talk to Ty. When Molly and Vivian returned to be stationed in Kansas, Ty was on his final move to El Paso. In 2018, Ty retired from El Paso and joined Molly and Vivian in Kansas. Molly retired from Fort Riley in May of 2019 and they moved to Colorado into the house Molly grew up in, which Molly’s mom held on to. 

 

Ty and Molly were both in the Army, Ty served 20 years, Molly served 22 years. They both served multiple overseas and combat tours. They were stationed in Korea, Bosnia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ty got to live in Hawaii a lot! 

The best part of being retired is spending time with the kids that we did not have while serving.

 

Ty and Molly got married on May 6, 2019 and Declan was born on May 24th. After having Declan and putting everything on hold for the pandemic Molly was able to start trying to repair many injuries from the Army with surgery on both of the feet/ankles and a sinus reconstruction, 3 surgeries since June. 

 

On the day of the fire, they were keeping an eye outside on the wind. Vivian was at a camp at the YMCA in Lafayette. Molly, Ty and Declan were at home when Ty spotted something from the sunroom. He called Molly over to say there was smoke billowing up the hill and they should probably plan on being prepared to evacuate. A few minutes and gusts of wind later they knew it was going to be bad as the fire raced down the hill and towards their home. They both started calling the rest of the neighbors to tell them to get out. 

 

By the time they gathered Declan, the dogs and cats they didn’t have time to grab much of anything else.  After they evacuated to the open space on Cherryvale Ty was doing everything he could to help the neighbors evacuate in the chaos. It wasn’t long until they were told to leave the open space and went to Molly’s best friend's house (and added 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 more adults, and 2 kids to their house).  

 

Now they are looking for a place to call home for at least a few months while they try and figure out what is next for their family.

 

They were also grateful to find that a handful of their chickens and ducks survived the fire. All a little worse for the wear but they have been temporarily rescued by some amazing people and are sheltered until they can restore their home. The home was owned by Molly’s parents and they were renting it from Molly’s mom. They have renters insurance, but will now have to deal with two insurance companies and FEMA to help restore their home and their previous way of life.