SimplerS Timess Monica Potter recaptures the magic of her childhood.

by Sandra Bienkowski photographs by Jeff Lipsky/CPi Syndication

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71917_LIV_LH1508_MonicaPotter-r2th.indd 86 5/27/15 2:25 PM 71917_LIV_LH1508_MonicaPotter-r2th.indd 87 5/27/15 2:25 PM Monica Potter recently bought her how he’d dream and build things. She Turning Houses childhood home in . She was witnessed him struggle while still into Homes just 16 when her family moved, and she helping people. To complete her dream of carrying mtold herself she’d buy it one day. The “Buying my house back is really a on her parents’ legacies, she started Hollywood actress, now 44, would f y to time to go back and ref ect because this Monica Potter Home, a natural home Cleveland from for the is where it all began: with my dad in the and beauty business. By creating jobs holidays and nostalgically drive down basement with his inventions, blowing for local artisans and craftspeople, she her old street. The house sat on the up things and making things. We are is honoring her father, and by helping market for eight years. She knows it going to restore it and make it how it people of all income levels enrich and sounds weird, but she started having used to be,” she says. Walking through beautify their homes, she is honoring dreams where her late father told her to her house is like a time capsule. She her mother. Initially launched online buy the house. Her mom thought she found her old yo-yo, her glow-in-the- at mrspotter.com, her f rst storefront was nuts, and her three sisters asked dark stickers in her bedroom closet and opened in Garrettsville, , on why she was doing this, but now that the initials of “the four of us sisters” still Valentine’s Day. she did, they all think it’s the best idea in the basement. “Coming out to Cleveland in ever. Buying back her home on the She’s in the planning stages for a mid-February, people were like, ‘What magical street where she grew up is all docu-series to record the home’s the hell are you thinking? Why didn’t about paying tribute to her parents by restoration. “It’s going to be cathartic you save your grand opening for the recapturing the joy of her childhood, because we walked in there, and we summer?’ We had 700 people show up and taking her life full circle. were laughing and crying and it brought in the snow. I get so emotional when The big-screen actress started from back a lot of memories, but not having I think about it. People drove in from modest beginnings. In breakout roles, my father there…he will def nitely be Florida, New York and Kentucky. It she co-starred alongside guiding us every day. My mom will help was so much fun. We had food and in the movie Con Air, in decorate it and do things she couldn’t music, and I wanted it to feel like a Patch Adams and in afford before.” family party.” Along Came a Spider. She’s also known Monica will be f ying back and forth Her voice cracks and she cries when for her work in the TV series Boston from her home in L.A., where she lives she talks about it. “There was a guy Legal, the daytime soap The Young and with her husband, Daniel, an and he had four daughters (and I’m the Restless and perhaps most famously, orthopedic oncologist, and their one of four girls) and you could tell NBC’s critically acclaimed drama, daughter Molly, 9. She wants to pass on they didn’t have any money. No one Parenthood. Despite her stardom and family traditions and relive childhood leaves without anything, so I pulled success, though, humble is still who memories with Molly and her two sons some things together, and my sister is Monica is today. from her previous marriage, Liam and like, ‘Monica, you are going to end up Her father was an inventor and her Danny, now in their 20s. bankrupt because you are just like mother a homemaker who always took Despite the glamour of Hollywood, dad.’ But that’s how my family is. great pride in making their house a she misses the simpler times spent on They are very giving and want to home. “I grew up in a world that was her tiny, magical street. “I loved the embrace the community.” always making, doing and creating,” heart of everyone. It felt like one big Monica says. “We had a very simple life, family,” Monica says. “You could living paycheck to paycheck, but it also borrow a stick of butter from your was very exciting.” She would go to neighbor. People sat on their front work with her dad as a kid and watch porches, had parties or were always in the lake. People were hardworking but knew how to enjoy life. It didn’t matter that we didn’t have a lot of money; what mattered was spending time together and making memories.”

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71917_LIV_LH1508_MonicaPotter-th.indd 88 5/21/15 12:58 PM 71917_LIV_LH1508_MonicaPotter-r1th.indd 89 5/22/15 5:22 PM “The business comes from the heart. It’s Monica jokes that her accountant isn’t happy with her, but she doesn’t about family and care. “The business comes from the heart. It’s about family and community and making things simple again. community and It’s about coming full circle and being able to explore that with the people making things simple you love.” Her mom is the store’s off cial again. It’s about greeter on Saturdays, and people come out to get their photo taken with her. coming full circle and Eventually Monica plans to offer an apprenticeship program to train artisans who don’t want to go to college. being able to explore Parenthood that with the people Describing herself as old school and simple, Monica says her parents you love.” instilled in her a love of hard work and creativity. She maintains scrapbooks —Monica Potter and sketchbooks and keeps a secret pink journal next to her desk to capture her ideas and thoughts. “I love being creative; it’s an outlet for me.” She also loves acting. “Life was not this challenging before But sometimes she has to follow her Monica’s portrayal of Parenthood’s technology. It’s the simplicity that we instincts. “I just f nished Parenthood, Kristina Braverman, who in the course are missing.” and everyone is like, ‘What are you of the show’s six seasons struggled She believes in making a rule going to do next? You aren’t on TV raising three kids (one with autism) and not to bring your phone to dinner. anymore, what are you going to do?’ If battled breast cancer, helped the Critic’s “I remember last summer, my husband you start to listen to that, you are Choice Award winner think about the and I went on a very special trip and like…‘I need to get a job.’ But I think, challenge of managing it all. “She we saved for it and it was fun, but we ‘No, it’s OK. God will provide like he (the character) taught me to slow down worked the whole time. We went in the always has and I will keep working and a bit, although I still need reminders. water once, and I was like, ‘Never putting one foot in front of the other.’ Everything she went through def nitely again.’ It’s a constant struggle because If you listen to all the, ‘What are you made me take more chances in doing we are human doings and not human going to do now?’ you will go nuts.” things in my own life.” beings.” Monica calls herself a work in As she looks toward the future, Monica says she can preach slowing progress. “I am learning how to let go of Monica plans to retire to the town down, but to live it is something she more things and delegate, but it’s really where it all began. Molly has her own works on daily. She usually gets up tough to do sometimes.” little kid’s corner in the store, loves before 6 a.m. in L.A. and gets on phone And, just like Kristina, she enjoys Cleveland and wants to live there. calls before Molly wakes up. After they relating to other parents. “If you are Laughing, Monica says, “She’s like, have breakfast and she takes her real, open and honest with people, it’s ‘Mom, you had a better childhood daughter to school, Monica hits the almost like, ‘Ahhh, I can be real with than I did.’ ” ground running. Her day is usually a you.’ ” She believes in f nding a common blend of acting, producing and business. thread with people as parents, wives, sisters and friends by realizing none of us are perfect.

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