Moms dine - no Strings attached

Restaurant hosts those who might have eaten alone

By Julie Hutchinson, Special to the Rocky

Monday, May 12, 2008

Preston Gannaway / The Rocky

Hat or no hat, Willie May Milton, Tina Williams and Catherine Smith, from left, gather for a complimentary Mother's Day brunch at Strings restaurant in Denver. The event, which drew 183 women, was organized the Volunteers of America RSVP program.

Almost 200 moms who otherwise might have spent Mother's Day alone were honored Sunday with a lavish, complimentary brunch at Strings restaurant near downtown Denver.

The event, organized by the Volunteers of America RSVP program, has been held at Strings for 16 years. Restaurant owner Noel Cunningham presided in the kitchen while restaurant staff and other volunteers served steak and eggs, eggs Benedict, salmon, omelettes, chicken salad, chocolate cake and strawberry sundaes.

Many of the 183 mothers in attendance wore a hat in hopes of winning a prize for the most spectacular. Drivers from Metro Taxi chauffeured many of the women, all 55 and older, to the brunch while a Denver police car, lights flashing, blocked traffic.

Georgia Bass, a resident of Park Hill since 1951, turned heads with a sparkling, sea-green hat as big as a punch bowl. It tilted coyly on her head as Bass, the mother of four, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of nine, walked to her table. She wore a green suit that perfectly matched the hat and a pair of silver, ankle- strap, high heels.

"I love hats and shoes," Bass explained.

Not wearing a hat but enjoying the brunch just as much was Willie May Milton, a 79-year-old Park Hill resident who arrived in Denver from Winfield, Kan., 46 years ago.

Celebrating her 37th Mother's Day, Milton bragged to table mates that her son and only child, whom she adopted when he was an infant, had sent her what was probably the most thoughtful Mother's Day gift ever: a Wal- Mart gas card.

"I'm blessed myself," said Milton, whose three grandchildren live in Champaign, Ill., but stay in constant touch.

Milton took time to recall her own mother, Bertha Johnson, who raised nine children during the Great Depression. She cooked, crocheted, knitted, gardened, canned and worked outside the home as a housekeeper.

"I don't know how she did all of it," Milton said.

But Milton apparently learned from her mother's example: She volunteers as a foster grandmother for Volunteers of America and at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver.

Marybelle Baker's small, white hat sported a green ribbon around the crown and red polka dots on the underside of the brim.

"Age spots," Baker joked.

The 85-year-old Baker, a University Park resident, pulled from her purse the Mother's Day card that had arrived in the mail Saturday from her son, Allen Baker, who lives in California.

"I think he's reached the age where he isn't mushy anymore," Baker said and giggled.

Then she changed the subject back to hats. "I'm not that flashy. I stay conservative," she said.

Baker grew up on a dryland wheat farm near Yuma. Mother's Day during her childhood, she said, was "the same as any other day. I helped her in the garden - vegetables and flowers. Any vegetable you can name."

Her mother battled grasshoppers and drought, Baker said, and kept the family together during the dust storms of the 1930s. Baker recalled leaving Yuma High School at 3:30 one afternoon to find "the streetlights were on, it was so dark. We called them 'Black Blizzards.' "

Baker, who drove herself to the brunch, said she was looking forward to spending the rest of Mother's Day at First Baptist Church, where she planned to attend services, followed by a current- events discussion group.