Around bars, buildings and art in Colorado, motherhood is honored
A mother can be called many things.
Mama or friend. She can also be many things. The person you call every day or the reason you call grilled cheese a comfort food.
She can be a favorite voice or a painful memory. She can be a source of hope for bad days or help when you can’t remember how to make grilled cheese like her.
Motherhood comes in many forms, as felt in many forms on Mother’s Day. Motherhood tends to be honored in many ways, too, with a restaurant or church or picture of a loving mom who wants to give everyone a hug.
If you know where to look, you’ll find all sorts of places with stories linked to motherhood. Here are some of those in Colorado Springs (and beyond):
Momma Pearl’s Cajun Kitchen
When Robert Brunet was opening his dream restaurant in 2013, he had one name in mind: Momma Pearl’s.
The title is a tribute and a “thank you” to his mother, Pearl, who taught the tradition of Cajun food and a “don’t give up” attitude. It’s also a mission statement for how customers should feel at Momma Pearl’s Cajun Kitchen.
“I want people to feel like they were going to dinner at Mom’s house,” Brunet, or Chef BB as he’s known, said. “We don’t have customers. We have people who are friends.”
Brunet and his 12 siblings, who grew up in Louisiana, learned how to cook from their mother, who often started in the kitchen at 8 a.m. They learned much more: Resilience. Use what you got. Keep going, no matter how tough things get.
“She was the kind of person who did whatever she had to do to provide for her family,” Brunet said. “That’s what brought her the most joy: her children or grandchildren.”
Brunet and his wife, Becky, have clung to those lessons through challenging times: Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Job layoffs. Running a restaurant during the pandemic. Losing Momma Pearl.
She died in 2019, a few days shy of her 98th birthday.
His son and daughter-in-law have kept going. They’ve found unexpected joys — maybe the reason behind Momma Pearl’s advice.
During the pandemic, Momma Pearl’s got a makeover, thanks to the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible.”
And, two years ago, Becky heard from a stranger. It was her biological sister.
“I never thought I wanted to know where I came from,” said Becky, who was put up for adoption days after her birth and grew up with a loving family.
She has since met her biological mother and heard her story. She grew up in a small town and was told keeping the baby at 15 would’ve “tarnished” the family’s name.
“I am blessed beyond words to have two moms that love me,” Becky said.
It makes Mother’s Day have “greater meaning” for the mom of three kids. And it makes her think: She wishes she could tell Momma Pearl.
She gets to carry on her legacy, though, when she hands customers a menu for Momma Pearl’s.
It begins this way: “100 years ago, in a little town of Houma, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans, Momma Pearl Theriot was born.” It ends this way: “Just like Momma Pearl used to make.”
American Mother’s Chapel
The white chapel surrounded by green trees and red rock formations at Rock Ledge Historic Ranch is a beautiful little mystery.
Many onlookers might think the structure, called American Mother’s Chapel, has historical significance because of where it stands. Others might think it hosts tiny church services.
Not the case.
“Neither the chapel, nor its architecture, has anything to do with the history of the Pikes Peak region or with the Garden of the Gods whatsoever,” said Carol Kennis Lopez, a former manager of the ranch who worked there from 1978 to 2002. “It was just plopped there.”
So, what is it?
Today, the chapel serves as a venue for small — and cheap — wedding ceremonies. It has a capacity of 15 people and costs $200 to rent. It doesn’t have a staff or a ministry.
The chapel was placed on the property, then known as White Horse Ranch, in 1972 by an “international organization that wished to honor motherhood,” according to Lopez’s recollection. “It was a memorial to motherhood,” she said.
A plaque embedded on a rock outside the chapel offers other clues.
Faded letters described the chapel as “interfaith” and “open for prayer and meditation.” They also say it was established by the American Mothers Inc., based in New York.
An organization by that name was inspired by Anna Reeves Jarvis “as she sought to heal the damage done to families caught in the conflict of the Civil War,” according to its website. Jarvis organized a day of love and friendship that grew into the national holiday of Mother’s Day, of which American Mothers Inc. considers itself the official sponsor.
Emails and calls to the organization were not returned by press time.
So it’s still a mystery, or as Lopez says, “this weird anomaly.”
The little chapel could be connected to the creation of Mother’s Day. Or it could just be something pretty to look at. When you look up, it’d be hard not to think of a mother.
A mural of ‘Mother Earth’
Driving down Platte Avenue, the sight is hard to miss.
The side of Platte Furniture is covered with colorful fruit and a blue bird smelling flowers. They surround a Black woman with flowing hair wearing a peaceful smirk, hoop earrings and a crown of corn.
It’s not inspired by a specific mother, but “Mother Earth,” as is the title of the 2019 creation by Colorado Springs artists Molly McClure and Muji Reiger.
The piece is part of the Knobhill Urban Art District, which got a grant for the mural to “draw attention to food deserts,” said McClure.
“I wanted to create this harvest goddess Mother Earth figure,” McClure said. “The idea was to cue in on the concept of nurturing the community and how it’s important to make sure our community is fed.”
When she thought of nurturers, she thought of women. She thought of the ultimate nurturer.
“Mother Earth is what feeds us,” she said. “It’s about the feminine and how the Earth has been represented with the feminine for a long time.”
Most of McClure’s subjects are women, depicting pop stars and friends and Fannie Mae Duncan, a leader of the civil rights movement in Colorado Springs.
For the artist, these faces of women are inspiring. So, when she thought of how to paint something called “Mother Earth,” she thought of a woman’s face. Kind of like, when nicknames for our planet came about, people thought of mothers.
“Women are powerful,” McClure said. “I paint women, because we are important.”
A brewery named Grandma’s House
The vision was simple and weird: It’s like a trip to your grandparents, but make it a cool spot to drink beer.
That’s how Matthew Fuerst came up with the look and name for Grandma’s House, the craft brewery he owns in Denver. The place has a vintage couch, crochet decorations, bobbleheads, knickknacks and a way to play old video games or VHS tapes.
Grandma’s House wasn’t modeled after any particular grandma or house, but kids or grandkids of many ages will likely see something familiar.
They will see a picture of Fuerst’s grandmother, Franca. The self-portrait is one of many paintings of hers hanging up. It’s one of many touches that makes the brewery “warm and inviting,” as Fuerst told The Gazette in 2021.
It also makes people want to hang out there, like when the brewery hosts its “Foul Mouth Cross Stitch” event every Sunday. Such events have the goal of bringing “all beer-loving grandkids together,” according to the brewery’s website.
No matter what it looks like, that’s what you’re supposed to do on a day like Mother’s Day — be together.
A portrait of an iconic mother
Lady Gaga. Dolly Parton. The famous women from “The Golden Girls.” Artwork of these stars, among others, hangs on the walls at Icons in downtown Colorado Springs.
Inside an ornate frame in the back, there’s a face many patrons wouldn’t recognize. The painting shows a smiling woman with wavy brown hair wearing a sparkly crown and a “Mrs. America” sash.
“The majority of people have no idea who it is,” said John Wolfe, a co-owner of Icons. “It’s a fun little secret.”
It’s his mom.
When Wolfe and his husband, Josh Franklin, were decorating the walls of Icons with iconic figures, they decided to borrow the portrait from its longtime spot near the basement of Wolfe’s childhood home in West Virginia.
The portrait was more than an aesthetically perfect fit.
“She represents what we are trying to represent here,” Wolfe said. “That is to embrace everyone for their differences and uniqueness.”
That’s one thing his mother, Deborah, passed on to her 10 children. She inspired Wolfe to follow his love of art and theater to Broadway and other gigs as a professional actor.
“She wanted everyone to follow their own happiness,” he said.
She wanted everyone to feel loved.
“My mom has been a huge advocate for equality for all people ever since I was a kid,” Wolfe said. “My house was kind of a safe house in a town that was not safe for everyone. She took in anyone who needed a place.”
Like a foster kid named Leo, who also wanted to pursue theater. He got to follow his dreams. And he got to be one of Deborah’s 10 kids.
“She has taught me what unconditional love looks and feels like,” Leo said. “Those are lessons I’ll be eternally grateful for.”
When Icons opened in 2020, Leo Nova-Wolfe joined the team.
He also gets to see the portrait of his mom as he’s working.
“I mostly feel happiness that our mom is being recognized for the iconic person that she is,” he said. “It’s like she’s there in spirit.”
The painting only shows a piece of that. Along with being crowned Mrs. America in 1984 and winning other titles, Deborah also served as a firefighter and police officer. She said she only joined pageants to help pay the family’s bills.
“She’s so open-armed to everyone in need,” John Wolfe said. “It’s a reminder for us to do that at Icons.”
When she visits Icons from West Virginia, she’s been known to give out plenty of hugs and go by “Mama Wolfe.”
“She’s the Icons mom,” John Wolfe said. “She wants to be everyone’s mom.”
Mother Cabrini Shrine
“This Hike Will Cure You,” says a review on Tripadvisor that’s one of the top online results when searching about the trail at Mother Cabrini Shrine.
That’s quite a promise for a short path of steps that measures less than half a mile out and back. It leads to a 22-foot statue of Jesus.
And many people hope the trail leads to healing, says Sister Roselle Santivasi, who has worked at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden for 12 years.
“They come to pray, they come to feel a peace they can’t find other places,” she said. “They come literally as pilgrims.”
They come because they’ve heard the name Mother Cabrini, an Italian woman born in 1850. Her Catholic ministry took her around the world, including to the foothills of Colorado, where she started an orphanage and summer camp for girls that is now named in her honor.
A century later, people like Santivasi keep her memory — and mission — alive.
“She was a teacher by profession, so it was always the children she looked to help first,” she said. “She had a deep concern for the dignity of people.”
And they called her Mother.
Sister Santivasi was called that, too. The title was more common in the 1960s, when she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Cabrini founded.
“Having had that title, it calls you to remember the characters you want to convey to the people you’re ministering to,” she said. “We connect the word ‘mother’ with someone who is caring and treats people with care.”
That’s one teaching from Mother Cabrini’s life, as is her unshakable faith.
“She dedicated her life to the ministry of Jesus,” Santivasi said. “She would probably not like that we have statues of her all around.”
Maybe she’d like that so many people visit this place named after a mother figure who, simply and greatly, cared.
Around bars, buildings and art in Colorado, motherhood is honored
A mother can be called many things.
Mama or friend. She can also be many things. The person you call every day or the reason you call grilled cheese a comfort food.
She can be a favorite voice or a painful memory. She can be a source of hope for bad days or help when you can’t remember how to make grilled cheese like her.
Motherhood comes in many forms, as felt in many forms on Mother’s Day. Motherhood tends to be honored in many ways, too, with a restaurant or church or picture of a loving mom who wants to give everyone a hug.
If you know where to look, you’ll find all sorts of places with stories linked to motherhood. Here are some of those in Colorado Springs (and beyond):
Momma Pearl’s Cajun Kitchen
When Robert Brunet was opening his dream restaurant in 2013, he had one name in mind: Momma Pearl’s.
The title is a tribute and a “thank you” to his mother, Pearl, who taught the tradition of Cajun food and a “don’t give up” attitude. It’s also a mission statement for how customers should feel at Momma Pearl’s Cajun Kitchen.
“I want people to feel like they were going to dinner at Mom’s house,” Brunet, or Chef BB as he’s known, said. “We don’t have customers. We have people who are friends.”
Brunet and his 12 siblings, who grew up in Louisiana, learned how to cook from their mother, who often started in the kitchen at 8 a.m. They learned much more: Resilience. Use what you got. Keep going, no matter how tough things get.
“She was the kind of person who did whatever she had to do to provide for her family,” Brunet said. “That’s what brought her the most joy: her children or grandchildren.”
Brunet and his wife, Becky, have clung to those lessons through challenging times: Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Job layoffs. Running a restaurant during the pandemic. Losing Momma Pearl.
She died in 2019, a few days shy of her 98th birthday.
His son and daughter-in-law have kept going. They’ve found unexpected joys — maybe the reason behind Momma Pearl’s advice.
During the pandemic, Momma Pearl’s got a makeover, thanks to the Food Network show “Restaurant Impossible.”
And, two years ago, Becky heard from a stranger. It was her biological sister.
“I never thought I wanted to know where I came from,” said Becky, who was put up for adoption days after her birth and grew up with a loving family.
She has since met her biological mother and heard her story. She grew up in a small town and was told keeping the baby at 15 would’ve “tarnished” the family’s name.
“I am blessed beyond words to have two moms that love me,” Becky said.
It makes Mother’s Day have “greater meaning” for the mom of three kids. And it makes her think: She wishes she could tell Momma Pearl.
She gets to carry on her legacy, though, when she hands customers a menu for Momma Pearl’s.
It begins this way: “100 years ago, in a little town of Houma, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans, Momma Pearl Theriot was born.” It ends this way: “Just like Momma Pearl used to make.”
American Mother’s Chapel
The white chapel surrounded by green trees and red rock formations at Rock Ledge Historic Ranch is a beautiful little mystery.
Many onlookers might think the structure, called American Mother’s Chapel, has historical significance because of where it stands. Others might think it hosts tiny church services.
Not the case.
“Neither the chapel, nor its architecture, has anything to do with the history of the Pikes Peak region or with the Garden of the Gods whatsoever,” said Carol Kennis Lopez, a former manager of the ranch who worked there from 1978 to 2002. “It was just plopped there.”
So, what is it?
Today, the chapel serves as a venue for small — and cheap — wedding ceremonies. It has a capacity of 15 people and costs $200 to rent. It doesn’t have a staff or a ministry.
The chapel was placed on the property, then known as White Horse Ranch, in 1972 by an “international organization that wished to honor motherhood,” according to Lopez’s recollection. “It was a memorial to motherhood,” she said.
A plaque embedded on a rock outside the chapel offers other clues.
Faded letters described the chapel as “interfaith” and “open for prayer and meditation.” They also say it was established by the American Mothers Inc., based in New York.
An organization by that name was inspired by Anna Reeves Jarvis “as she sought to heal the damage done to families caught in the conflict of the Civil War,” according to its website. Jarvis organized a day of love and friendship that grew into the national holiday of Mother’s Day, of which American Mothers Inc. considers itself the official sponsor.
Emails and calls to the organization were not returned by press time.
So it’s still a mystery, or as Lopez says, “this weird anomaly.”
The little chapel could be connected to the creation of Mother’s Day. Or it could just be something pretty to look at. When you look up, it’d be hard not to think of a mother.
A mural of ‘Mother Earth’
Driving down Platte Avenue, the sight is hard to miss.
The side of Platte Furniture is covered with colorful fruit and a blue bird smelling flowers. They surround a Black woman with flowing hair wearing a peaceful smirk, hoop earrings and a crown of corn.
It’s not inspired by a specific mother, but “Mother Earth,” as is the title of the 2019 creation by Colorado Springs artists Molly McClure and Muji Reiger.
The piece is part of the Knobhill Urban Art District, which got a grant for the mural to “draw attention to food deserts,” said McClure.
“I wanted to create this harvest goddess Mother Earth figure,” McClure said. “The idea was to cue in on the concept of nurturing the community and how it’s important to make sure our community is fed.”
When she thought of nurturers, she thought of women. She thought of the ultimate nurturer.
“Mother Earth is what feeds us,” she said. “It’s about the feminine and how the Earth has been represented with the feminine for a long time.”
Most of McClure’s subjects are women, depicting pop stars and friends and Fannie Mae Duncan, a leader of the civil rights movement in Colorado Springs.
For the artist, these faces of women are inspiring. So, when she thought of how to paint something called “Mother Earth,” she thought of a woman’s face. Kind of like, when nicknames for our planet came about, people thought of mothers.
“Women are powerful,” McClure said. “I paint women, because we are important.”
A brewery named Grandma’s House
The vision was simple and weird: It’s like a trip to your grandparents, but make it a cool spot to drink beer.
That’s how Matthew Fuerst came up with the look and name for Grandma’s House, the craft brewery he owns in Denver. The place has a vintage couch, crochet decorations, bobbleheads, knickknacks and a way to play old video games or VHS tapes.
Grandma’s House wasn’t modeled after any particular grandma or house, but kids or grandkids of many ages will likely see something familiar.
They will see a picture of Fuerst’s grandmother, Franca. The self-portrait is one of many paintings of hers hanging up. It’s one of many touches that makes the brewery “warm and inviting,” as Fuerst told The Gazette in 2021.
It also makes people want to hang out there, like when the brewery hosts its “Foul Mouth Cross Stitch” event every Sunday. Such events have the goal of bringing “all beer-loving grandkids together,” according to the brewery’s website.
No matter what it looks like, that’s what you’re supposed to do on a day like Mother’s Day — be together.
A portrait of an iconic mother
Lady Gaga. Dolly Parton. The famous women from “The Golden Girls.” Artwork of these stars, among others, hangs on the walls at Icons in downtown Colorado Springs.
Inside an ornate frame in the back, there’s a face many patrons wouldn’t recognize. The painting shows a smiling woman with wavy brown hair wearing a sparkly crown and a “Mrs. America” sash.
“The majority of people have no idea who it is,” said John Wolfe, a co-owner of Icons. “It’s a fun little secret.”
It’s his mom.
When Wolfe and his husband, Josh Franklin, were decorating the walls of Icons with iconic figures, they decided to borrow the portrait from its longtime spot near the basement of Wolfe’s childhood home in West Virginia.
The portrait was more than an aesthetically perfect fit.
“She represents what we are trying to represent here,” Wolfe said. “That is to embrace everyone for their differences and uniqueness.”
That’s one thing his mother, Deborah, passed on to her 10 children. She inspired Wolfe to follow his love of art and theater to Broadway and other gigs as a professional actor.
“She wanted everyone to follow their own happiness,” he said.
She wanted everyone to feel loved.
“My mom has been a huge advocate for equality for all people ever since I was a kid,” Wolfe said. “My house was kind of a safe house in a town that was not safe for everyone. She took in anyone who needed a place.”
Like a foster kid named Leo, who also wanted to pursue theater. He got to follow his dreams. And he got to be one of Deborah’s 10 kids.
“She has taught me what unconditional love looks and feels like,” Leo said. “Those are lessons I’ll be eternally grateful for.”
When Icons opened in 2020, Leo Nova-Wolfe joined the team.
He also gets to see the portrait of his mom as he’s working.
“I mostly feel happiness that our mom is being recognized for the iconic person that she is,” he said. “It’s like she’s there in spirit.”
The painting only shows a piece of that. Along with being crowned Mrs. America in 1984 and winning other titles, Deborah also served as a firefighter and police officer. She said she only joined pageants to help pay the family’s bills.
“She’s so open-armed to everyone in need,” John Wolfe said. “It’s a reminder for us to do that at Icons.”
When she visits Icons from West Virginia, she’s been known to give out plenty of hugs and go by “Mama Wolfe.”
“She’s the Icons mom,” John Wolfe said. “She wants to be everyone’s mom.”
Mother Cabrini Shrine
“This Hike Will Cure You,” says a review on Tripadvisor that’s one of the top online results when searching about the trail at Mother Cabrini Shrine.
That’s quite a promise for a short path of steps that measures less than half a mile out and back. It leads to a 22-foot statue of Jesus.
And many people hope the trail leads to healing, says Sister Roselle Santivasi, who has worked at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden for 12 years.
“They come to pray, they come to feel a peace they can’t find other places,” she said. “They come literally as pilgrims.”
They come because they’ve heard the name Mother Cabrini, an Italian woman born in 1850. Her Catholic ministry took her around the world, including to the foothills of Colorado, where she started an orphanage and summer camp for girls that is now named in her honor.
A century later, people like Santivasi keep her memory — and mission — alive.
“She was a teacher by profession, so it was always the children she looked to help first,” she said. “She had a deep concern for the dignity of people.”
And they called her Mother.
Sister Santivasi was called that, too. The title was more common in the 1960s, when she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Cabrini founded.
“Having had that title, it calls you to remember the characters you want to convey to the people you’re ministering to,” she said. “We connect the word ‘mother’ with someone who is caring and treats people with care.”
That’s one teaching from Mother Cabrini’s life, as is her unshakable faith.
“She dedicated her life to the ministry of Jesus,” Santivasi said. “She would probably not like that we have statues of her all around.”
Maybe she’d like that so many people visit this place named after a mother figure who, simply and greatly, cared.
