National spotlight shines on Albany mother

ALBANY, Ga. — “I’m dreaming. I must be dreaming. I’m in bed, so all this can’t be real,” Mary Tyson said Friday morning.

Admittedly it was a surreal moment.

There she sat. Nestled under the covers in a comfy bed in the front yard of her home, surrounded by friends, family and people she didn’t even know. Among them, world-renowned chef Emeril Lagasse and a few million of his friends via the watchful cameras of Good Morning America.

Out of the thousands of names sent in by children who each believed their mother was the single best in the nation, GMA picked Tyson because of a vow she made more than 45 years ago.

In 1965, an 18-year-old Tyson watched as first her mother, then her father died within a year of each other. Determined not to have the state split her and her eight younger siblings up, the newly-married Tyson took it upon herself to welcome each of her siblings under a small roof in Americus.

As the years passed, Tyson welcomed six children of her own into the world, and, according to GMA officials, raised them just as she had her brothers and sisters.

Friday morning, members of Tyson’s family were rushed from homes across the country and flown into Albany as part of a clandestine plan to surprise their highly-valued relative with the best Mother’s Day ever.

With the help of the city of Albany, the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce, the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and a host of surreptitious volunteers, organizers frantically worked to pull together what was arguably the city’s best-kept secret over the last 48 hours without Tyson catching wind.

Before dawn, volunteers, friends and family began gathering in the Indian Creek subdivision to shoot teasers with Lagasse just a few hundred yards from Tyson’s home.

Just after 8 a.m., Emeril alone knocked on Tyson’s door. Screams that might otherwise have alerted neighbors to what surely sounded like some violent crime signaled first contact between the two.

After a few minutes inside, the massive group of 50 or more that had assembled to congratulate Tyson walked up to her front yard, and when Lagasse brought her back outside the mother of six was greeted with cheers, a contingent of national guard soldiers and even a band.

To top it all off, the national guard brought in a bed and strategically positioned it in the front yard, where Lagasse served Tyson french toast, eggs and fruit with orange juice.

“I’ve never had breakfast in bed; this is so good,” Tyson said.