For John Marbach and Sherry Pressler of Belle Mead, N.J., it will be a wild ride as their triplets graduate from three different universities, in three different states, on three consecutive days starting this Saturday, May 16. Planning for this weekend got underway in 2010. FAIRFIELD, Conn. (May 14, 2015) - What happens when your triplets graduate from three different colleges, in three different states, over the course of one weekend? John Marbach and Sherry Pressler from Belle Mead, New Jersey, know the answer: planes, trains and automobiles.
“Four nights out, three different hotels, train tickets, car travel, and airplane travel, wow,” said Pressler. Her triplets – Melanie, Megan and John Jr. Marbach - will graduate respectively from Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore, Md., on May 16; ýƵƹۿ in Fairfield, Connecticut May 17; and Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on May 18. “The whole family feels incredibly lucky that the ceremonies fall on different days,” said Megan Marbach, a senior at ýƵƹۿ’s School of Nursing. “Melanie and John are my best friends for life, so I wouldn’t miss their graduations for anything.”
The planning of the trip actually got underway in 2010, to be exact. Even then, Sherry and John worried about the triplets’ college graduations being on the same day. “When they were choosing where to attend college four years ago, I remember checking the graduation calendars,” said Pressler. “I would be heartbroken not to be able to attend all three graduation ceremonies.” Added John of his brood, “All three children felt it was important to attend each other's graduation.”
The parents’ graduation weekend will start on Thursday afternoon when they depart New Jersey. First stop is Baltimore, for Melanie's graduation from Loyola where she majored in accounting. She’s the youngest of the three, by six minutes. Meanwhile, Megan will be traveling by train from Fairfield to New Jersey and then drive to Maryland while John Jr. will fly in from North Carolina.
Friday evening, the family will have dinner in Baltimore to celebrate Melanie's graduation, a gathering that will double as a 22nd birthday party for the triplets. After the Loyola graduation Saturday morning, the next stop is Connecticut. Four of the Marbachs will begin a road trip up Interstate 95 northbound to Fairfield, which is located about an hour from Manhattan and like Loyola, is a Jesuit institution. Megan will likely travel back to ýƵƹۿ immediately after the Loyola graduation via the train as she does not want to miss out on pre-graduation night activities.
Fairfield’s commencement is 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Then it’s off to Fairfield Beach for a celebration luncheon hosted by Megan and her roommates at their house. Afterwards, the five Marbachs will drive to JFK International Airport for a flight to Winston-Salem and make their way to Wake Forest where John Jr. majored in computer science. The university’s graduation is on Monday morning at 9 a.m.
“Our flight back home on Tuesday morning will be filled with a combination of extreme pride for the three graduates and the exhausted parents,” said Pressler, who works for Johnson & Johnson. “It’s worth it – all the travelling,” said Megan. “It’s about encouraging each other on.” John, director of Sales for the Tranzonic Companies, said the years have truly flown by since the triplets were born. “We have some elementary school pictures on a kitchen wall. The pictures seem like [they were taken] yesterday.”
As far as post graduation plans, Megan and Melanie, both graduates of Montgomery High School in N.J., plan to live and work in New York City. Megan would like to practice as a nurse in orthopedics, a dream she has harbored since tearing her ACL and getting such good nursing care in recovery. A graduate of the Hun School of Princeton, John, an entrepreneur, is headed to Silicon Valley to work for a start-up, Tsumobi.
Although Megan is pumped for the future, she’s rather unfazed by the looming, hectic travel schedule that awaits. “We can sleep Tuesday.”
CAPTIONS: [L-R] Megan, John and Melanie Marbach today. A picture of the triplets when they were three. [L-R] John, Melanie and Megan.
Posted On: 05-14-2015 03:05 PM
Volume: 47 Number: 253