How My Mom Surprised Me with an Owensboro Icon Meet and Greet

Happy Mother's Day weekend to all the moms out there. I hope you all have a spectacular weekend.

And I hope you all pick your moms' brains and invite her to share some amazing stories I'm sure she can tell you.

My mother has plenty of them.

But this story isn't necessarily one of Mom's. This one's mine but features my mother prominently. It also features not one, but two Owensboro icons--one no longer living and one no longer in existence.

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One Saturday, after I'd finished my first year at Western Kentucky University, Mom invited me to join her for lunch at Gabe's Restaurant. Kentucky Hot Brown, here I come. Gabe's always knocked it out of the park with the Commonwealth's most iconic dish. An iconic dish at an iconic restaurant. I love it when a plan comes together.

So does my mother. And on that summer afternoon in 1985, her plan did come together. And I reaped the benefit.

We were sitting there in the center of the restaurant and she asked me if I minded if someone joined us for lunch. Of course, she was being facetious because she knew I wouldn't mind and I didn't.

Next thing you know, in walks Senator Wendell Ford. Now, I wasn't gobsmacked over the encounter; I knew that he and my mother had been friends since she was a child. They went to the same church when she was growing up and they always stayed in touch.

But, I had never met him. And since he was spending all of this time in Washington, that's not surprising.

It was a nice lunch and a nice conversation, free of politics. Mom and Senator Ford were not on the same side of the political aisle, so to speak. But that never mattered to those two. And she probably voted for him anyway.

I don't remember the exact details of everything we talked about, but I do remember thinking how cool it was. It was quite an honor meeting the late senator. He was a good man.

Mom and I still talk about it, among many other things. I might even bring it up when I go see her Sunday.

Happy Mother's Day, everyone.