chronicles
by
DEBBIE BANCROFT
Let the Good Times Roll Friends and family toast moms, milestones and Mario (Buatta, that is) at an array of sentimental events
M
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otherhood is the greatest sorority in the world,” Muffie Potter Aston reminded us as she accepted the Mother of the Year Award at The American Cancer Society Award Luncheon. Those of us with teenage daughters with better shoes than our own, toddlers who eat our Crème de la Mer or lump sons (our lump sum) who produce nary a card this May 8 know Muffie’s story—and remember that motherhood truly is the greatest gift in 26 | AVENUE MAGAZINE · MAY 2011
life. After 12 miscarriages and a nursery that remained unfinished, too painful the constant disappointments, she was finally blessed with Bracie and Ashleigh. She slept in their room for their first year, never missing a feeding. “Dr. Aston, am I not doing a good job?” asked the idle baby sitter. “No,” he replied. “Mrs. Aston is doing the one job she always wanted.” Sherrell also told us that while he knew from the first night he met Muffie that she would be his wife, she told him, “Hold on a minute—I intend to be a
mother!” (though he already had three boys). Bracie and Ashleigh, perfect towheaded angels, presented mommy with their own homemade ‘trophy’ card . . . and there was not a dry eye in the place. Dr. Freya Schnabel, director of Breast Surgery at the NYU Langone Medical Center, was also honored as Mother of the Year—richly deserved for the countless mothers’ lives she has saved and for the passion and adoration she has for her two daughters who, as she said, “transformed my life.” Patti Hansen, whose life Dr. Schnabel saved, presented her award. Co-chairs and proud friends included: Grace Hightower De Niro, Somers Farkas, Diana Feldman, Daphna Keitel, Alexandra Lebenthal, Cynthia Lufkin, Georgette Mosbacher, Allison Stern and Adrienne Vittadini. Another pal being deservedly lauded, who—like Che, Gaga and Nostredamus— can go without a surname: Mario (Buatta for the three of you who didn’t know). His new Mario Buatta Materials Atelier at the New York School of Interior Design was honored by the esteemed school at a dinner given after the AVENUE Antiques
© PATRICK MCMULLAN==PHOTO - JONATHON ZIEGLER/ PATRICKMCMULLAN.COM
Deborah Roberts and Alina Cho