Mother’s Day …

Back on May 1, 1864 in the tiny town of Webster, West Virginia, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis gave birth to a little girl she named Anna Jarvis. The family moved to the short distance to Grafton, West Virginia in her childhood.

On May 12, 1907, two years after Anna’s mother died, Anna Jarvis organized a memorial to her mother at St. Andrew’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton–passing out 500 white carnations–and then made it her personal quest to establish “Mother’s Day” as a recognized holiday–which it became in 1914. The International Mother’s Day Shrine was established in Grafton to commemorate Anna Jarvis’ accomplishment.

But from there, an interesting plot twist takes over–in the 1920s Anna Jarvis incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, claimed copyright on the second Sunday of May, and was even arrested once for disturbing the peace. She invested her family inheritance campaigning against the holiday–until she died blind and penniless in 1948.

According to Anna Jarvis’ New York Times obituary, she became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card. As she said, “A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother-and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment!”

Anna Jarvis never married and had no children. She died in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and is buried next to her mother in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Today, Mother’s Day ranks only behind Christmas and Valentine’s Day in terms of spending–it is credited with nearly $15.8 billion in retail sales:  flowers, restaurant (it is the number one eating-out holiday of the year), jewelry, and heaven help us if we should ever forget–greeting cards.

And Mother’s Day is today–the second Sunday in May.   Thus, unless you’ve already done this, you need to go now and buy a printed card, so you don’t have to write one yourself, and take a box of your favorite candy to your Mom … maybe she’ll give you a glass of milk to wash it down with.

But don’t worry about embittering your twenty-first-century mother. Our Moms already know we’re brats–and love us in spite of it. However, they might be troubled should you let the day pass without at least acknowledging, no matter how superficially, some of the suffering we’ve put them through.

If your Mom’s no longer with you, then acknowledge somebody else’s mother–maybe the mother of your grandchildren, or the mother of your neighbor’s kids, or the mother of your niece or nephews. Just do it.

Happy Mother’s Day.