We only have one mother, so let’s celebrate her this Sunday
By: Douglas Heizer
I hope you all realize how important your mothers are.
Sunday is Mother’s Day, and we should all celebrate the women who brought us into the world – whether they are still with us or have gone to their reward.
As I said in a column earlier this year, I was very nervous at the time because my mother had to have an operation to remove an aneurysm on her aorta. Thankfully, the operation was a success and she is recovering well.
I guess I was thinking a lot about her during that critical time, and I came to realize how the institution of motherhood has become so revered in this country.
Douglas Heizer
There are Mother’s Day celebrations in other countries, so I checked the Internet to get some background on how the holiday evolved in the United States.
I was surprised to learn that the first attempts to establish a “Mother’s Day” in the U.S. generally involved women’s peace groups. A common early activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on opposite sides of the American Civil War. It was apparently an effort, led by mothers, to reunite families that had been torn apart because of the fighting.
Even today, mothers are usually the ones who make the most strident effort to keep families together.
Efforts to create an official Mother’s Day observance in the US gained steam, then cooled off during the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century.
On May 8, 1914, the U.S. Congress passed a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and requested a proclamation. On May 9, 1914 President Woodrow Wilson issued that proclamation declaring the first national Mother’s Day as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.
Nowadays, we honor our mothers by taking them to dinner, bringing them flowers and candy and gathering all the kids and grandchildren (if any) around to spend the day together.
I won’t be able to see my mom on Mother’s Day. She is in Brazil, still recovering from surgery. But I am glad to report that she is doing well.
When you think about it, you don’t need a special occasion to visit your mom. Any day will do. Any visit is an occasion to go out to a nice restaurant of just sit around and talk about the “good old days.”
Those whose mothers have passed away can call upon those memories to support themselves as they try to get through the day without sending a card or a bouquet of flowers,
So, whether our mothers are by our side, in another country or looking down from above, we have a duty as loving children to remember them, to thank them for raising us into responsible adults and making us wise to the ways of the world.
A card or a flower may have a message. But the best ones come straight from the heart.
