Mother Load : It’s Offspring Fever When ‘Mom Quam’ Is Saluted

Things that come in dozens were never enough for Billy Quam, who reared 15 children in her Laguna Beach home and has 41 grandchildren. She learned early on, she says, to stock her kitchen with multiple egg cartons and 100-pound sacks of potatoes, all aimed at feeding her army of adolescents.

Quam, 69, who single-handedly reared her seven youngest children after her husband died 19 years ago, is considered a supermom by her family and friends. On Mother’s Day today, she will be feted by some of her brood, ages 24 to 50, with a special celebration of brunch and bowling.

“I haven’t bowled in, say, 25 years!” Quam exclaimed.

The remainder of the day will be spent fielding the usual overflow of phone calls from the rest of the close-knit family, now scattered from Southern California to Slovakia.

A Laguna Beach native, Quam grew up an only child. When she married her husband, James, they vowed to raise a house full of children.

“We always joked about having 20 children and that it would take a school bus to transport them all,” Quam recalled, during an interview in her pale blue beach home.

Still, she said, she never actually imagined she would have as many children as she did: seven boys and eight girls.

For 32 years, the Quams lived in the same five-bedroom house where Billy still resides. On the top floor, four bedrooms lined with bunk beds and trundles were divided along gender lines--two for the boys and two for the girls.

The master bedroom, of course, is stationed at the entrance level, directly across from the front door. “They all had to check in when they came home,” Quam explained.

The family survived on the salary of her husband, who worked as a letter carrier and a janitor. While he worked days and nights, Quam stayed home enforcing strict rules.

Every child was delegated daily chores, ranging from dishwashing to lawn-mowing, she said. During the summer, Quam recounted, her routine was to rise at 4 a.m. and unseam a 100-pound sack of flour to prepare fresh bread and cinnamon rolls.

Meanwhile, the children would file out of their rooms to eat breakfast and complete their chores by 10 a.m. If they were good, they got to spend the day at the beach, with the little ones under firm guidelines to return home by 2 p.m.

“Our parents taught us to do everything as a team,” said David Quam, No. 11 in the Quam lineup.

Some evenings, the children helped their father with his janitorial work at nearby St. Catherine’s Catholic Church. At Sunday services, the Quam family filled two pews.

Little privileges were invented to help ease the big family experience, the children remember.

For instance, names were drawn at Christmas to make gift exchanges more affordable. And once a child reached the senior year in high school, he or she was allowed to move into “the crow’s nest,” a single bedroom with that rarest of commodities: privacy.

But a few inconveniences were unavoidable, given the size of the household.

“We took a cross-country trip one summer in a station wagon. All 15 of us,” said David Quam. “That was before seat belt laws were implemented.”

But the Quam children said there were more benefits than disadvantages to a large family. Most important, they said, they each have 14 reliable friends.

“I love having a big family,” said Debbie Weatherwax, the youngest Quam child. “If you can’t get ahold of one person, you’ve got a list of people to call.”

This will be the first year that Weatherwax, 24, of Colorado, won’t spend Mother’s Day with Quam. Although all the children are close to their mother, Weatherwax said her position as the youngest created a special bond.

When Quam was 45, she was pregnant with Debbie. At the same time, two of Quam’s older daughters also were pregnant. “Debbie was an aunt even before she was born,” Quam said.

Just before Weatherwax reached her fifth birthday, her father died of lung cancer. Quam, who had never worked outside her home, was left with seven children to raise.

Quam went to work as a housekeeper and secretary at their local church and the children helped put themselves through college.

Debbie, a high school volleyball standout, won scholarships. David worked as a hospital security guard to pay his way through medical school. And the others found their careers in the military, business and the sciences.

When Quam speaks of her children, a group she describes as a rainbow of personalities, she glows with pride. Still able to chase after her black Labrador, she radiates youth and energy.

“Each child was a new blessing in my life,” she said.

Her children attribute the tight-knit family unit to their parents’ unrelenting supervision and care. Every wedding, the house was filled with more than 150 relatives, they say.

On holidays such as Easter and Christmas, up to 40 little ones race through her home. But while those large gatherings are geared toward the young, her children say, Mother’s Day will revolve around the woman they call Mom Quam.

Although gifts--of vases, coffee cups and other items--are likely to come her way today, Quam says it’s not those things that make the celebration so meaningful.

Instead, she looks forward most to hearing her children’s voices, receiving pictures of grandchildren and engaging in the laughter that surrounds her home.

“It’s been a really, really good life,” Quam said.