Their family and community rallied around them. Friends from church packed up their townhome and moved them into their new house. The following day, Jennifer lay on the couch in her new home, exhausted from the chemo.
“Lying there, I remember thinking everything was going to be okay,” Jennifer shared.
Three months later, she completed chemotherapy. And that fall, their beautiful, healthy son, Benjamin Kyle, was born, just as Russell had prayed and predicted.
It’s an unlikely-but-true story that unfolded twenty-five years ago. Today, Jennifer is cancer-free, and Russell Cotton is still practicing real estate. Jennifer and Mike’s older son, Sam, now 27, and his wife, Sarah, have blessed them with a granddaughter, Addie Drew. And the miracle baby, Kyle, now 25, is happily married to Chloe and living in Franklin, Tennessee.
Jennifer has never forgotten what Russell did for their family.
“He led us to our home through a tumultuous time,” she said. “I always knew I wanted to pay that forward.”
That experience became the foundation for Jennifer’s real estate philosophy she uses to this day—to practice the role of REALTOR® with empathy for each of her clients, and to be a supportive, steady presence in seasons that are often marked by stressful life change.
“When someone is buying or selling a house, there are underlying circumstances going on,” she explained. “Sometimes it’s good, happy, and exciting. Sometimes it’s difficult.”
For Jennifer, the privilege of being a real estate professional is having the opportunity to walk alongside people through whatever life transition is taking place. Her goal is to become the kind of trusted professional Russell was for her family.
“Now I can say to my clients, ‘If you trust me, I’ll help carry you through,’” she shared. “It’s important to me to become a true expert, so I can do the hard stuff for my clients. Hopefully,
