Mom and daughter from same mold find badly needed comic relief at pottery class
By John Le
WLOZ TV 13 – Asheville, NC
WLOS — BREVARD, N.C. — “Coffee and Clay” are the central ingredients to a sweet mother-daughter bond.
Lori Cavanaugh and Alice Betts are from the same mold and clearly stood out at a pottery class held weekly at Transylvania Community Arts Council. There, they find an escape from the weight of the world.
“Start getting prepped for the wheel,” instructor Phllipa Hackett said, who provides a morning escape for folks eager to learn. “Because this is your first time, don’t have an idea of the shape you want.”
“A lot harder than it looks,” Lori said.
The pottery wheel is part of their carpool of constant laughs.
“We laugh about the same things!” Alice explained.
Alice’s “Wild Turkey Bourbon” apron first drew News 13 to the intoxicating duo. It’s her husband’s, wink wink.
“He got it when he was on the liquor board,” she said. “ABC board, edit that out, ha ha!”
She might need a designated potter.
“It’s a little wobbly,” Alice says of her first wheel attempt.
“Coffee, Clay, wild turkey, where can you go wrong?” Lori said.
Each day with clay provides some much needed comic relief. Alice’s husband has health problems, and Lori doesn’t want her mom to face everything alone.
“We have some family health issues that we’re working on together, and I quit my job to help her and to help our family,” Lori said. “And you know life is not a dress rehearsal. We get one shot.”
One shot to give back to the mom who’s given her so much. Over the years, Alice turned motherhood into an art form, molding her kids into caring adults.
“Lori’s probably my best friend, and we enjoy being together, doing things like this,” Alice said. “This was her idea.”
They lean on each other through tough times.
“We’re close we seem to think alike,” Alice said.
Together they share a feeling of accomplishment.
“This is a bowl,” Lori said proudly. “I would like to consider it an ice cream bowl. Because small amounts of ice cream are dumb.”
It reminds Alice of what she made at Camp Kanuga when she was just 12.
“And I made an ash tray, back then we smoked, or they smoked! It was blue and yellow!” she said of the ash tray her son has at home.
Decades later, she’s moved on from ash trays.
“Oh, it’s kind of a goblet,” she explained.
Maybe someday they’ll make a punch bowl for all their punchlines.
“I said you could make a dork-umentary,” Lori laughed.
They shoulder the weight of life’s dilemmas by finding humor anywhere they can get it.
“We kind of bounce back and forth off of each other,” Alice said.
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