Slade Bailey is a man whose world has revolved around the family he has built over the last 32 years. He is husband to Jessica, dad to Madison, Sawyer and Harper, father-in-law to Zack, and Pops to nine month old, Nash Taylor.
Family Life and Traditions
Slade is a very intelligent, dry witted, deep thinker with a quiet, but strong and competitive spirit. He enjoys reading, traveling, watching sports (especially college football – GO DAWGS), and really good food…that he often cooks himself.
As a dad, Slade loves his children and he has always supported everything they have been involved in…including horse competitions and ownership, a love of reptiles and fishing, and participation in sports like softball, and football and lacrosse, where he helped coach for many seasons.
In marriage, Slade has been committed to Jessica and together, grounded in their faith, they have created experiences as a couple and as a family, which have brought about some pretty amazing memories. Most of all they love spending time with their children…especially in their home, by the TV in the fall, watching their Georgia Bulldogs, or while vacationing in any destination that begins with the word Disney, where they have created some of their most treasured moments together. They love spending time with their large, fun loving, extended family too, as well as the very dearest of friends, who they have raised their children with, and have experienced life with in a way they know is uniquely blessed. Overall, life has been very good for them. Yes they have faced trials, as everyone does, but God has always been faithful.
Work and Dedication
Slade has always appreciated good quality and has always supported businesses that provide that. That appreciation is likely what motivated him to provide a high level of quality as a small business owner. As a teenager, Slade began working in swimming pool maintenance and repair, and in 1997 he opened a business providing those services as a one man operation…the only way he could ensure quality control. Over the last 29 years he has worked incredibly hard to support his family, with honesty, integrity, and a level of quality that isn’t common…just ask any of his clients…some who, for that reason, have been with him since the very start of Slade Bailey Pools.
The Current Challenge
Slade has always been pretty steady, and pretty routine, but over the past year, Jessica started noticing some changes. At first it was random, but by October of 2025, she started taking notes. Slade was “off” more consistently. He was forgetting things. He was becoming disconnected and wasn’t as interested in things he normally made a priority. He had been having difficulty walking for years, and blamed it on bad knees, but by the end of December, he was walking in a way that showed an obvious neurological deficit. On January 5th, Jessica took Slade to the doctor. Blood tests were run, and a CT scan of his brain was ordered for a week later. On January 13th, while on the way home from the CT scan, Jessica got a call asking her to bring Slade to his doctor immediately to discuss the CT results. They were told that Slade had a large mass in the right frontal lobe of his brain, and he needed to go directly to the emergency room to have an MRI done. Within a couple hours, they were told that the mass in Slade’s brain consisted of intense swelling around a large brain tumor that needed to be removed as soon as possible. On January 20th, a craniotomy was performed. 80-85% of the tumor was removed and was sent off for genetic testing. A couple weeks later, Slade and Jessica received the worst news possible…the tumor was a Grade 4 Glioblastoma. The most aggressive form of brain cancer.
Since Slade’s diagnosis, life has been very scary and very uncertain for him and his family. Not only have they been navigating what this horrible disease means for Slade’s health, but they have faced the unfortunate effect the diagnosis has had on his career. Since surgery, Slade has been unable to work. This has been very hard for him because he didn’t want to let his clients down. The condition in which he worked leading up to his diagnosis and the efforts he made to try to tie up loose ends while recovering from surgery and going through treatment, are so telling of his work ethic and his commitment to his clients, and to his family. Unfortunately, Slade’s business has had to pause, for now, which has caused an immediate loss of income…an incredible financial burden.
Community Support and Faith
Because of their extraordinary friends seeing the need, stepping in, and creating opportunities for people to support them…resources have been provided that have allowed Slade’s number one priority for now, to be fighting this horrible disease.
The future for the Bailey family is very unclear, but they have seen how the Lord has gone before them, and they have faith that He will continue to direct them down the path He has created for them.
