Home Is a Person: The Story of Suad and Jim McClain

Photography by Karen Presecan Photography

Ask Suad McClain what home means to her, and she won't describe a house. She'll tell you about a night in Hawaii, standing in the arms of a man she'd known for barely a week, when she looked up and said, "I feel safe. I feel like I'm home." Nearly seven years, a marriage, two enormous Rottweilers, and a shared real estate business later, that feeling has only grown roots — and it now lives in a lakeside home in Sawhill.

Suad and Jim's story almost didn't happen. Both had recently come out of difficult relationships, and both were adamant that friendship was all they wanted when a mutual friend introduced them by text message. Then, on November 6, 2019, they talked on the phone — and didn't stop. The conversation lasted nearly eight hours, stretching so late that Suad, still living in Hawaii at the time, finally told Jim she needed to sleep before her early restaurant shift. Jim mentioned, casually, that he was headed to a real estate closing. It was one in the morning. "I asked why he had a closing at one o'clock in the morning," Suad recalls. Neither of them had noticed the six-hour time difference between Hawaii and Virginia; they'd simply lost track of the world talking to each other. From that day on, they spoke every single day, and they married on May 23, 2023.

That instinct to lose track of time in good company runs through everything the McClains do, especially when it comes to travel. Suad has visited countries across the globe and considers Europe her favorite place to wander, with Amsterdam holding a special place in her heart. But she isn't interested in checking off tourist boxes. "Traveling is not about shopping or rushing from one tourist attraction to another," she says. "I prefer to explore local neighborhoods, experience the food, meet local people, and learn about their language, customs, and everyday lives." She travels to Bahrain, where she was born and raised, as often as she can to see her mother, and she just returned from taking a mother-daughter trip to Edinburgh with her daughter Sara. Jim has traveled with her to Bahrain and Africa, and the two hope to see much more of the world together. Suad is already planning to take him to Amsterdam.

Their marriage joined two already-full families into one lively, blended one, and travel is just one thread in a much larger family tapestry built on hard work, laughter, and looking out for each other. Suad's three children include Sara, 25, a private-jet captain who graduated valedictorian in Hawaii before attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Alex, 21, a Habilitation Technician supporting adults with special needs; and Frankie, 20, a cook currently working at a resort near the Grand Canyon. Each chased down something entirely their own. 

Jim's three adult children and nine grandchildren add still more branches, including a grandson currently ranked among the top four outside linebackers in Virginia for his class. Suad sums up the sprawling, cross-generational family with clear pride: their household includes "a private-jet captain, a Habilitation Technician, a young cook, athletes, real-estate professionals, a chef and baker, and nine grandchildren." Different paths, different corners of the world, but the same values underneath.

Nowhere do those values show up more clearly than around the McClains' table. Suad's path has taken her from a career as the first and only Bahraini flight attendant at British Airways to culinary school in Hawaii to opening her own café, Suad's Majles, on Princess Anne Street in downtown Fredericksburg. "Majles" is an Arabic word for a living room or gathering place, and for nearly three years the café served handcrafted desserts, Bahraini-inspired flavors, Arabic coffee, and homemade cardamom and rosewater syrups to a community that, in her words, "felt welcomed, safe, and at home." Many customers became close friends. It's no surprise, then, when Suad says plainly, "Food is truly my love language." That philosophy is exemplified in how she cares for people, welcomes them, and shows them they matter. That same instinct sends her to volunteer preparing meals for people experiencing homelessness around Thanksgiving and Christmas each year, because she believes a warm plate can offer more than nourishment: it can offer dignity.

Hard work runs just as deep in the family as hospitality does. After closing the café, Suad began learning real estate investing from Jim, who has spent 46 years in the field. What started with helping him make calls has grown into a genuine partnership: the two have completed four investment properties together, often working with families facing foreclosure, unpaid taxes, or liens, searching for creative solutions before a bank can take control. Having weathered their own difficult housing and financial chapters, Suad and Jim understand exactly what it feels like to believe you've run out of options, and helping others find their way through is now part of the family's shared purpose.

Even their pets fit the theme of loyalty and looking after one another. Ziva and Sadie, their nearly five-year-old Rottweiler sisters, joined the family almost by accident, after a second puppy slipped from Jim's lap during a phone call and yelped out. "The guilt on Jim's face was unforgettable," Suad says, and he told the breeder on the spot that the sisters would stay together — a decision the family still laughs about as his "You break it, you buy it!" moment. The dogs have more than repaid the favor: when Suad received the call that her brother had passed away, Ziva and Sadie surrounded her before she even understood the news, pressing against either side of her and holding her steady.

That same warmth is already taking root in Sawhill, the Spotsylvania neighborhood the McClains have called home since August 2025, when they discovered the house while renovating it as an investment, fell for its lake view, and decided to keep it for themselves. Suad has noticed that neighbors "always make eye contact, smile, and wave," whether they're mowing the lawn or just driving past, a small kindness that means a great deal to a family that measures so much of life in warmth, connection, and shared meals. She's already looking forward to hosting a neighborhood barbecue before winter.

As she puts it, "Our door, and especially our dinner table, is always open to friendship, good conversation, and connection." For the McClains — across continents, careers, and generations — that's always been the whole point.