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Helen Pearson, Kendal Friends Show Support For Triathlete
For the second time in three years, Helen Pearson got to watch her grandson win a silver medal at the Summer Olympics last week.
She was watching on a big screen TV with friends at the Webster Center for assisted living residents at Kendal at Lexington last Monday afternoon. Her grandson Morgan Pearson and his teammates took silver in a photo finish in the mixed triathlon relay in Paris, France.
Helen, 96, has lived at Kendal for six years, but she and her late husband, Jack, moved to Lexington to retire about 25 years ago, discovering what they saw as a charming little city on their way to visit their son Donald when he was a student at Sewanee in Tennessee.
In an interview last Monday morning, before she got to watch the silver medal race, Helen told Morgan’s story and what roles she’s had in his life as a grandmother – or “grandmom,” as she refers to herself – and supporter.
Just hours later, she watched Morgan, 30, and teammates Taylor Knibb, Seth Rider and Taylor Spivey place second in the mixed relay in 1 hour, 25 minutes and 40 seconds, with Spivey outsprinting Great Britain’s Beth Potter by five-thousandths of a second to take silver. Germany won the race in 1:25:39. The relay consisted of a 4 X 300-meter swim, a 7-kilometer bicycle ride and a 1.8-kilometer run.
The previous week, on July 31, Morgan competed in the men’s triathlon and placed 31st in 1:48:26, about five minutes behind the winner, Great Britain’s Alex Lee, who finished in 1:43:33. For the triathlon, athletes swam a mile in the Seine River before biking 25 miles and running 6.2 miles.
In the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Morgan also competed in the men’s triathlon and with the team that won the silver medal in the mixed relay. Helen remembers when Morgan, who was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in the New Vernon section of Harding Township, N.J., came home to his family’s summer house in the Jersey Shore. “He came in with his badges,” she said. “I got to wear his medal.”
When Helen spoke to Morgan before he competed in the Olympics this summer, she offered words of encouragement. “I told him to enjoy the moment,” she said. “I said, try your best, but feel good and remember it as happy.”
She admitted she was nervous and had trouble sleeping leading up to Morgan competing in the men’s triathlon last month. “I thought of him,” she said. “Maybe he wasn’t sleeping, and I was awake with him. I just didn’t want him to fumble or something and not be able to run.”
Helen said she was also concerned about Morgan having to swim in the Seine River, which several athletes got sick from this summer. “It was filthy,” said Helen. “He said he just couldn’t get in there.”
“You just feel badly that they have to jump into a dirty river to swim because they don’t know right away, you could get a mouthful of water,” added Helen.
Growing Up Athletic
Helen recalled Morgan being active and athletic at a very young age, when Morgan and family came up to visit Helen and Jack at their cottage in Ontario, Canada. The cottage is on stilts, Helen noted, “so the children had to learn that you did your running outside and your walking inside, but he never did [walking]. He was always jumping around and running.”
“The swimming, he did from the time he was born almost,” added Helen.
Morgan had great success as a cross country and track runner in high school and college. He ran for Delbarton School, a private school in Morristown, N.J., before running for Duke University for a year and then transferring to the University of Colorado, from which he graduated in 2016 with a degree in economics and mathematics. Morgan currently lives and trains in Boulder, Colo.
After college, Morgan started doing triathlons and won the age group nationals as a rookie in 2017. Qualifying for the national team in his first year participating in the sport, he then qualified for the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games after earning a bronze medal at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Yokohama, Japan, a result he quickly followed with a silver medal at the WTCS Leeds. This May in Yokohama, Morgan became the first American to win the WTCS since 2009.
Helen said she could tell what Morgan wanted to do when he grew up. “I think he was always thinking of being a runner,” she said. “He was an outdoors person.”
She recalled Morgan as “a good boy, very nice.”
Like Morgan’s father, John Michael, who is a Canadian-American pharmaceutical company executive, Morgan had a business sense about him from a young age. “He built a [three-hole] golf course at our cottage, and people got excited, but he said, ‘But you have to pay to play,’” said Helen. “So, he was always sort of money-minded.”
John Michael made it to Paris for the Olympics and brought a large group of people with him to cheer on Morgan.
Helen noted that Morgan makes sure to try to inspire the next generation of athletes. In his free time, Morgan visits schools and encourages the youth to stay active. Helen is no stranger to schools either, as she was a teacher during her working life. She also served as a church administrator, while Jack worked at Bell Canada before taking a job at AT&T in New York City.
Morgan also enjoys spending time with his girlfriend of several years, Molly Grabill, a distance runner who has competed internationally in marathons and other distance races.
A Community Of Support Others at Kendal joined Helen in cheering for Morgan this summer. She and Jack, who passed away two years ago, made friends there who have joined in watch parties for Morgan, and they’ve also been watching a lot of other Olympic sports. Helen sees her daughter, Cathy Brabandt, often, as Cathy lives in Lexington.
Christy Panko, Helen’s caregiver, said she could tell that two of the residents at breakfast last Monday were very tired from staying up late watching the Olympics the night before. “It’s been fun,” said Panko.
“It’s been fun watching Morgan here at Kendal because everybody’s like one big family here,” she said. “There was a big watch party for the triathlon. When one family member is competing, everybody cheers him on.”
Panko added that Kendal is having its own competitions there. Victoria Felton and Kristen McCabe, who run the fitness center, have gotten residents involved in volleyball, swimming relays and badminton.
In addition to inspiring the youth, Morgan’s accomplishments have enriched Helen’s golden years. Although Morgan hasn’t been to Lexington, he has a great relationship with Helen, and the Pearsons are a close family. His Instagram handle, morgan_ cadwell_ pearson, includes Helen’s maiden name, Cadwell.
Morgan, the second child of four born to John Michael and Christine Pearson, is the athlete of the family, Helen said. His older brother, Andrew, passed away in his 20s, and he has two younger twin brothers, Trevor and Parker, who live in the western United States. Morgan’s father played hockey, and Morgan tried lacrosse and hockey before he realized he could specialize in running.
It’s possible that Morgan will be competing in Los Angeles in four years for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Only time will tell on that one, but it shouldn’t be long before Helen has the honor of wearing Morgan’s latest medal when they see each other again.
