GILROY
– Every first Wednesday of the month, 35 women donning red hats
and purple outfits gather to laugh, gossip and sometimes even cry.
The group, known as the
”
Stinkin’ Red Roses
”
is the local chapter of the national Red Hats Society, a
spirited self-help organization for middle-aged women.
GILROY – Every first Wednesday of the month, 35 women donning red hats and purple outfits gather to laugh, gossip and sometimes even cry. The group, known as the “Stinkin’ Red Roses” is the local chapter of the national Red Hats Society, a spirited self-help organization for middle-aged women.
Determined to do away with the old-maid stereotypes, members ages 50 and up wear red hats that they say are symbolic of their active, fun lifestyle.
In 2001, the first chapter was founded in Fullerton by graphic designer Sue Ellen Cooper. Since then its popularity has skyrocketed with hundreds of chapters across the world, found even in remote places like Trinidad and Saskatchewan. Cooper has recently written a book, “The Red Hat Society: Fun and Friend After Fifty,” which wound up on the New York Times’ Paperback Advice bestseller’s list.
The group’s namesake comes from a poem entitled “Warning,” whose author Jenny Joseph writes in the first lines: “When I am old I shall wear purple with a red hat which doesn’t go and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves and satin sandals.”
Jan Buessing founded the Gilroy chapter last August. The 56-year-old administrative assistant said that for 15 years she had suffered from extreme migraines and menopausal symptoms, which made her depressed. For Buessing, the idea of helping women embrace old age with optimism felt like a good cause and was personally important.
“When we get together, it’s instant sisterhood because we are all in the same passage of life,” Buessing said.
The Gilroy group recently visited Bonfante Gardens and has gone on outings to the Elks Club fashion show, dinner at Mama Mia’s and hosted several potluck dinners, garnering attention from the community. Members say there is now a shopping mall in San Juan Bautista that caters to red hat buyers.
Buessing likes to flaunt her most recent purchase – a wide-brimmed, fire-engine red fedora with fur trim that she bought on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
“You need humor in your life to get through the ‘M’ stage of your life,” she said, laughing at her new accessory. For the future, she has many antics in store for the club, which includes plans for events where members can make “bra purses” and bedroom slippers out of sanitary pads.
New member Kay Sverdahl, a 62-year-old widow who has lived in Gilroy for seven years, said the club is a great way to relax from her role as a grandmother. Sverdahl, along with working a part-time job, lives and takes care of her three grandchildren. She wakes at 6:30 a.m. to make them breakfast, and at 8 a.m. she whisks them off to school and then picks them up in the afternoon, carting her grandson to baseball and granddaughter to gymnastics class. Sometimes she does not get to bed until 11 p.m.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love my grandchildren with all my heart, ” she said, adding, “It is nice to be in an adult group once in a while.”
