Mothers, daughters celebrate life
Published 12:00 am Saturday, May 11, 2002
'Tis the season for Mother's Day.
'Tis also the season for weddings.
So, it just made sense to the organizers of the St. Mark's Lutheran Home's annual Mother-Daughter Tea to celebrate both with a wedding theme for their tea. Wedding cake was served as employees and volunteers modeled wedding dresses and talked about the history of some of the gowns.
St. Mark's activities director Karen Waletzke said the tea, which was held Friday, is an event with multiple benefits. "Our celebration of Mother's Day gets mothers and daughters together at the facility for a fun day and with this year's theme, it's a fun time for everybody to get together to reminisce about dresses and weddings."
Even as the event was being organized, Waletzke said "we got some great stories, like one from a volunteer here who was married right after the Depression. She said a fancy, expensive wedding dress wasn't considered appropriate when so many people were starving," so the volunteer decided to be practical with her money instead and didn't buy a fancy gown.
Though the theme of the tea may vary from year to year, residents of St. Mark's "look forward with enthusiasm to see what we can do from year to year."
They also see the tea as a way to gather with their children, family and friends and share memories. "A lot of times when people come to the nursing home, they have trouble finding things to talk about. This gives them something to talk about. They can share memories and remember when they were younger and got married," Waletzke said.
That encouragement to share memories was a positive aspect of the event for Mary Herrick and Sharon Barnes of Austin who came to the tea to visit their mother, Esther Christofferson.
"It brings back memories of daughters' weddings and granddaughters' weddings," Herrick said. "It's a nice activity they do to honor mothers. It's really not about weddings, it's about Mother's Day."
"Anything you do like this creates memories. It's fun and I think it's very nice they do this," Barnes said.
"It makes it a more special time for the residents as well as the daughters," Herrick added.
All three women said they really enjoyed the tea's theme. "As women we all love weddings. I think we're all romantics at heart," Herrick said.
Call Amanda L. Rohde at 434-2214 or e-mail her at amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com