On a grassy slope at the Denver Botanic Gardens, 18-month-old Cameron Percy clapped her hands and bounced Sunday to a rendition of “Pretty Woman” coming from a nearby stage.
Picnicking with her in the sunshine sat a cousin, a grandmother and an aunt and uncle — the family her mother, Sarah Percy, had hoped to call her in-laws.
Two years after Cameron’s father died unexpectedly at 45 years old, the mother-daughter pair traveled 1,200 miles from Detroit to spend Mother’s Day with his family.
“It’s important for my daughter to know where her dad came from,” said Percy, 35.
Mother’s Day, when her fiance’s family from across the country gathered in Denver, was an ideal time to build that bond, she said.
The group joined hundreds of others spread out on blankets or strolling the garden paths at Sunday’s Mother’s Day brunch. Music, dancing, magic shows and the squeals of children filled the gardens at the annual event.
For Cameron’s grandmother, Evelyn Joiner, the day was twice as sweet. The Denverite celebrated her 81st birthday with her family.
“I don’t travel,” Joiner said. “And I wouldn’t get to see the baby if they didn’t come back.”
Percy and her fiance, Paul Hannum, had plans to marry, a townhouse near the tony Santa Monica beach in California and a baby on the way in August 2006 when Hannum fell ill with appendicitis. They rushed him to the hospital, where doctors misdiagnosed the problem and sent Hannum home, Percy said. His appendix burst. That was three months before Cameron arrived.
After his death, mom and daughter moved to Detroit to live with Percy’s family. Even though Cameron never met her dad, Percy keeps the toddler in touch with his family, said Hannum’s brother, Curtis.
“It means the world to me,” said Curtis Hannum, 48. “We’re so fortunate that she does it for herself, for Cameron and for all of us. We feel blessed.”
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
