She founded and fought, Mother’s Day

A hundred years ago, West Virgina became the first state in the union to proclaim Mother’s Day an official holiday. Anna Jarvis founded Mother’s Day to honor her beloved mother, then spent the rest of her life fighting the holiday’s commercial and political exploitation. She died alone in an asylum. Her story – and the modern day story of Mother’s Day- began, of course, with her own mother. In 1858, Ann Reeves Jarvis organizes Mother’s Day Work Clubs in West Virginia to improve sanitary conditions and stem her communities appalling infant mortality rates. In her lifetime Jarvis has 13 children and only sees four of then live to adulthood. In 1868 the wake of the Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis coordinates a Mother’s Friendship day to bring former foes on the battelfield back together again. The initially tense day goes well, with Veterans from the North and South weeping and shaking hands for the first time in years. In 1870 Julia Ward Howe, a mother and another forerunner of modern day Mother’s Day celebration, suggests a, “Mother’s Peace Day”. She makes the case that war is a preventable evil and mothers have a sacred right to protect their boys. The inagural celebration of Howe’s “Mother’s Day” takes place in June of 1873. Ann Revves Jarvis dies on the second sunday in May in 1905. One of Jarvis’ surviving daughters, Anna Jarvis, organizes a small service in honor of her deceased mother on the second Sunday in May 1907 at the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, W. VA. In 1908 the first formal “Mother’s Day” commemoration is marked with another service at the same church in Grafton, and with a much larger ceremony in Philadelphia. Jarvis has a white carnations distributed to the mothers, sons ans daughters in attendance in Grafton. In 1910 It’s official in W.VA. The governor of West Virginia makes Mother’s Day an official holiday on the second Sunday in May. Anna Jarvis creates the Mother’s Day International Association in 1912 and trademarks the phrases “second Sunday in May” and “Mother’s Day.” She wanted Mother’s Dasy to be very private acknowledgment of all the mother does for a family. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson makes Mother’s Day an official national holiday. Jarvis is gratified by her preferred placement on the apostrophe in “Mother’s Day” – making it singular possesive, not plural possesive, so each family would homor its one and only mother. In 1915 Mother’s Day becomes an official holiday in Canada. Shortyly after 1915, Jarvis begins to sense the she’s created a monster when she sees the florists, card and candy industries cashing in on Mother’s Day and public interest groups using the holiday to make political statements. She rails against exploitation of what was suppoesed to be a special, reverential day for families. Jarvis endorses open boycotts in 1922 against florists who raise the prices of white carnations every May. In 1923 Jarvis threatens to sue the New York Mother’s Day Committee, of which NY Gov. Al Smith and Mayor John Hylan are members, over plans for large Mother’s Day celebration. The event is canceled. Jarvis is slighted when the American War Mother’s successfully lobby President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Postmaster General James A. Farley to unveil a Mother’s Day stamp. The stamp features a portrait of painter James McNeill Whistler’s mother with white carnations and the words’ “In memory and in honor of the Mothers of America” The commemorative stamp was established in 1934. Anna Jarvis accuses first lady Eleanor Roosevelt of “crafty plotting” by using Mother’s Day in fundraising material for charities trying to combat high maternal and infant mortality rates. In 1944 Jarvis, now 80 years old, is places in a mental asylum called the Marshall Square Sanitarium. Jarvis dies at 84, in 1948, alone penniless from the various legal battles she waged over the holiday she started. She never made any profit from Mother’s Day, and she never had any children. Now ever since consumers spend big bucks on thier moms each Mother’s Day!!!

There’s no greater privilege than to be loved by my beautiful angel. Words cant expain the joy that he brings into my life…but today, I dedicate this day to my wonderful mom…She’s a suvivor of all illnesses that life has thrown her way. Her strength inspires me in everything I do. I thank god for allowing me to share more mother’s day with her!!! Happy Mother’s Day to all!!!