- Resident Story
Milly Bentrott
Born in Wetzlar, Germany and lived with her 6 sisters and parents. Her mother, in 1929, before she married, emigrated to New York to work as a nanny. That was short lived when she returned to Germany for a visit and met her future husband.
Milly’s father worked in Germany as a forester, a professional who takes care of the flora and fauna of the forest. In Germany, there are approximately 11.4 billion acres of forest! That’s a lot of forest!
An Eye For Fashion
From a fairly young age, Milly was drawn to fashion. But, she was often disappointed about the limited color pallet of grays, blacks and beige clothing that were available at that time.
Because of this, she decided to enroll in fashion school in hopes of transforming the industry. For her, seeing more color in women’s fashion was everything!
By the time she completed an apprenticeship as a fashion buyer, Milly realized she could be both a buyer and designer. She went on to launch Milly Stinton Fashion. She married shortly their after and she and her husband adopted a son who now works in Australia as a teacher. After her family was grown, Milly worked for years at Chateau managing the front desk.
A designer at heart, she has been an avid knitter, often wearing a beautiful sweater of her own making. She has also made sweaters, hats and blankets for family, including for her grandson.
Following in her father’s footsteps, Milly loved to garden. Instead of trees, she focused on flowers. For a plant to be in Milly’s Garden, it had to have flowers! She was particularly fond of growing roses.
Retirement
After retiring, Milly decided to return to Chateau La Jolla and worked part time in the evenings to help the manager who replaced her. Once she really retired, she moved into Chateau, the place she spent several of her pre-retirement years! In recent years she has married her love of knitting with her warm heart and made dozens of beanies for the homeless here in San Diego at Christmas time.
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