Pioneer Potluck: Mom loves the purple hat

  • By Grannie Annie
  • Tuesday, August 11, 2015 5:19pm
  • LifeFood

1996 Boulder Colorado

My Trip with Bernie to Denver

 

This is the last in a series of my trips to Denver with Bernie. This story happened on the same trip as the photo of the bikini girls and the hunk-a guys in Estes Park.

We arrived in Denver after I got my purse strap untangled from my wheelie luggage and slung if over my shoulder the rest of the trip. Arriving in Denver International Airport (DIA) and getting to your destination is a trip in its self.

The airport is situated in the middle of a large cow pasture in the middle of nowhere, easta of Denver. Bernie’s good friends from Erie, Lillian and Chuck picked us up and took me to Boulder where my sister, Ginger and Mom lived. Bernie went home with Lillian.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

My Mother was so glad to see me in her own little fashion, frail and old, suffering from the first stages of Alzheimer’s but full of big smiles.

I unpacked the next morning and showed Mom a hat the Bernie had made for me out of cute purple flower fabric. The brim could be bent and shaped in any form you chose. It also had a big purple fabric rose pinned to the side. Mom fell in love with it.

I wore it, she wore it, I wore it and she would take it off my head and put it on hers. We played the hat game all day. The next morning the purple hat was resting on the dresser next to my bedroom door. I looked up just in time to see an old wrinkled hand with a crooked finger, grab the hat. Mom poked her head in the door of the bedroom, slammed the hat on her fuzzy, gray haired, head and skip-ran down the hall, smiling and laughing “tee hee, tee hee.”

She pulled out a chair and sat down at the breakfast table and started eating her oatmeal with the purple hat on. If I came near her she would grab the brim of the hat and pull it down around her ears and say with a big grin “IT’S MINE!”

She wore the hat off and on each day I was there. We had so much fun with the purple hat. When I left the hat was in her bedroom and I told her she could have it. “Thank you!” she said with a big big grin. I have a feeling that hat was hers the very first day!

When she passed away, my great niece Kaylie wore it and then sent it to me. I wore it off and on and gave it to Susan so she could wear Grandma’s hat.

I treasure the memory of My Mom and the Purple Hat. Thank you Bernie for the wonderful memories.

Make sure you make memories every day. They are important!

 

More in Life

Homer’s Cosmic Creature Club performs at the 2024 Concert on the Lawn at Karen Hornaday Park. (Emilie Springer/Homer News file)
July events to provide entertainment and fun on lower Kenai Peninsula

Events include the Highland Games, Concert on the Lawn, local art camps and the Ninilchik Rodeo.

Nick Varney
Unhinged Alaska: Flashback dreams and the cold sweats

When summer arrives, every personage in the known cosmos suddenly seems to remember that they have kindred living in Alaska.

File
Minister’s Message: Freedom is not what you think

If freedom isn’t what we first think it is, what is it?

This is the Kenai Power complex. The long side of the plant faces the Frank Rowley home, seen here at the right side of the photograph. (Photo courtesy of the Rowley Family)
Let there be light: The electrifying Frank Rowley — Part 1

Frank Rowley made one of the most important steps toward modernization in the history of Kenai.

This cake stacks colored crepes for a brilliant rainbow breakfast. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Crepes of a different color

This rainbow cake celebrates Pride with layers of colored crepes.

”Thread of Light” is an acrylic painting done this year by Dan Coe on display through June at the Art Shop Gallery in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Christina Whiting
Fine art in invented spaces

Anchor Point artist showcases his skills with exhibit of acrylic paintings.

A variety of peony blooms grow vibrantly on Pioneer Avenue on Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Homer, Alaska. (Delcenia Cosman/Homer News)
6th annual Peony Celebration begins July 1

The festival will run in Homer through Aug. 17.

A band performs during the Family Fun in the Midnight Sun festival at the North Peninsula Recreation Center in Nikiski, Alaska, on June 21, 2025. (Photo by Jonas Oyoumick/Peninsula Clarion)
Midnight afternoon

Nikiski turns out for annual solstice festival.

Virginia Walters (Courtesy photo)
Life in the Pedestrian Lane: A bug in the system

Schools are in the news lately, both locally and nationally.

Most Read