her own clothes. she never bought anything. she would wash tin foil and tape it to the refrigerator door to reuse it. mime not making that up. she taught us that you can't control what life throws at you. she was widowed twice before she was 40. so my dad died when i was 8. and, you know, when i got laid off -- and i was lucky. unlike a lot of americans, i didn't have children. i didn't have all those responsibilities. but i did have a network of friends who helped me -- this idea to create a restaurant that would brew its own beer. and for the record, my mother wouldn't invest. frame of reference. but the bottom line, these friends helped me get started, and they really allowed me to put a business plan together. we got a book out from the library, but we had to get a loan from the city of denver to promote economic development. there was a partnership between the city government and the downtown business community to provide incentives for people to try to start businesses in what was then an abandoned warehouse