LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — A group of mothers in Lee’s Summit are celebrating 13 years of friendship after meeting on their children’s first day of Kindergarten at Longview Farm Elementary.
“I had no idea that this would become what it would be," Angie Miller said.
VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Abby Dodge
Kristin Nolte, who joined the group a few years after its inception, said she found a community with these women during some of her hardest times.
“I really wasn’t sure what I was searching for," Nolte said. “But it is everything I wanted out of friendship.”
The group adopted the name momtorage after a visit to the pool where the mothers protected their kids from a bully.
They met because of their kids, but this group hasn’t been about them for years.
Their children graduated in May, but they plan to support each other through a new chapter in life.
“We all have our own stories,” Christine Laird said. “We are there for each other and lift each other up.”
The group met through cancer diagnoses, divorce and the death of a child and grandchild. They have seen each other through it all.
“I think it is too easy to look at everybody else and say, you know, they have everything together and I don’t,” Heather Theiss said. “We’ve all got something.”
Many of the mothers said they feel the group is a form of therapy. What is said at their meetups isn’t shared and never judged.
“We just have a bond like no one else,” Angie Touzinsky said.
The momtorage wants to encourage other young parents to find their own group to navigate life with.
They said it takes courage to go up to a stranger and make a connection, but it is worth it.
“Everybody needs these connections,” Theiss said. “And if you just go through assuming everyone else already has them, you won’t get it.”
The momtorage said the key to their friendship is consistency. They make plans for their next gathering at the end of each coffee date.
—
