There is one thing Ann Sanders will not part with: Her hats.
“When I used to go to church, we used to wear hats and gloves,” Sanders says. “I just couldn’t stand getting rid of my hats.”
Her closet is filled with “too many to count,” she says. For her, hats conjure lots of happy memories of Easter and shopping for hats to wear to church.
Sanders and other members of the Disciples Women Fellowship Group at East Dallas Christian Church share these happy memories with residents of Fowler Christian Apartments on the campus of Juliette Fowler Homes with an annual Easter Tea Party. The women’s group brings sandwiches, cookies and punch, and each woman wears a festive hat. Sanders takes the entire spring hat collection out of her closet for the Fowler residents to wear. The room fills with all kinds of hats — bonnets with flowers, turbans and fur hats.
After eating and visiting, a member of the women’s group plays the piano while everyone dances and parades around the room to show off their hats.
“They were thrilled to death to have hats to put on,” Sanders says. “I think it reminded them of their younger days, when they would get dressed up and go to church. I think it brought up some wonderful memories.”
Sanders and other women from East Dallas Christian Church will return again — with hats on their heads — this year to the Fowler Christian Apartments. Since Easter falls early, the party will be April 8 to celebrate spring.
“It’s always one of the highlights of my whole year,” says Bobbie Vickery, a resident of Fowler Christian Apartments. “The ladies seem so happy to be there. It’s just wonderful.”
Last year, Vickery wore one of Sanders’ dusty rose hats with flowers. She says it matched her rose-colored pantsuit perfectly.
“We used to wear hats all the time, even downtown shopping” Vickery says. “We wouldn’t go out without our hats.”
Sanders says she did most of her hat wearing in her 20s and 30s. She didn’t keep many of the dresses, but she kept all of her hats. Her husband would ask her why, and she never had an answer. But now she does.
“They just want to have a good time,” Sanders says of the Fowler residents. “This is part of bringing joy to other people.”
