For Misel and Mark Berry, happiness has always come from simple constants: family, faith in each other and the joy of staying active together. Their story starts with a blind date set up by a mutual coworker, which quickly turned into a lifelong partnership. They married in 1995, blending Misel’s Florida sunshine upbringing with Mark’s Georgia roots.

After graduating from the University of Florida, where she cheered and earned a degree in Computer Engineering, Misel moved to Atlanta for work. Mark, a proud University of Georgia graduate with a Management Information Systems degree and an MBA, was already deeply tied to the Peach State. Together, they started married life in a small one-bedroom apartment in Midtown. Everything changed in 1997 when they welcomed their first daughter, Elizabeth. As their family grew, they searched for a place to build a home and a future.

That search brought them to Windward, then a developing lake-centered community with a tennis club, golf course and a promise of strong schools. The couple fell in love instantly. They built one of the neighborhood’s first homes and moved in when newborn Elizabeth was just three weeks old. The happiness they found there would shape the next three decades.

Today, the Berry family has four children who were raised and thrived in the Windward community.

Elizabeth (28), Will (26), Ethan (23) and Sara (19).

From the very beginning, their lives were defined not only by academics and hard work but also by a distinct athletic thread, tennis. What began as early lessons at the Windward Lake Club developed into a family identity.

 

“You have soccer families and baseball families. We are definitely a tennis family,” Misel shares, a truth supported by nearly 25 years of membership and involvement.

Misel has competed in countless USTA (U.S. Tennis Association) and ALTA (Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association) seasons. At the same time, all four children grew up rallying, competing and building lifelong friendships on the courts.

Tennis became the family’s language of happiness, filled with weekend tournaments, coaching sessions and road trips across the Southeast. Ethan and Sara became standout junior competitors, a passion they carried through high school and college. Today, Ethan still plays ALTA and even competed in the LIV Tennis league for Windward last summer, while Sara, now an Industrial Engineering major at Georgia Tech and a Zeta Tau Alpha member like her mom and big sister, coaches juniors.

Academically and professionally, the Berry children continue to prosper. Elizabeth, a UNC Chapel Hill graduate, former cheerleader and ZTA member, is now preparing for her most exciting chapter yet. She and her husband, Shane, are welcoming a baby in February, which means Misel and Mark will soon become first-time grandparents. Will, a Georgia Tech Computer Science graduate, is living and working in Washington, D.C. Ethan, a recent University of Georgia graduate, is working and living in Midtown, while Sara continues her studies at Georgia Tech.

Even now, with the kids grown, happiness fills the Berry home, especially when their beloved mini Bernedoodle, Lenox, and his kitten sister, Evie, come to visit. 

And after outgrowing their first Windward home years ago, Misel and Mark moved less than a mile away, choosing once again to stay in the place they love most.

Windward has given the Berry family years of joyful memories, including muddy childhood adventures in the woods, birthday parties at the Sports Park, holiday traditions with Mark’s nearby family and longtime restaurant favorites such as the Local Expedition, ‘Cue Barbeque, Windward Tavern and Rumi’s Kitchen at Avalon.

For the Berry’s, happiness has never been complicated. It has been built slowly and steadily, much like their first Windward home, on love, movement, laughter and the ties that keep their family close, no matter where life takes them next.