As a mother, I can appreciate more what mothers do for us, and what mine did for me. She fed me, clothed and protected me, and she developed a mother’s intuition of what I needed even when she couldn’t name it right away.

As a young mother whose formal education ended at Grade 8, she never stopped learning. From my understanding, she did what many parents do, and that is to share their challenges and questions with someone a little farther along the way in parenting.

A first child, I’ve also come to understand, is the beginning of learning for new parents, but I survived and thrived after a rough beginning. Mom was the one to console me when I was sad, the one I ran to with a skinned knee, and the one I stayed close to in new situations. She was a safe person for me. My Dad was too.

Mom was the one to teach me my first personal health habits about eating well, brushing my teeth and dressing for the weather. She and Dad enabled my siblings and me to have more opportunities and advanced education beyond high school, opportunity that neither of them had.

They worked together well, taught us that a job carefully done was worth the time it took, whether it included household chores, driving the tractor or tending the garden. Their team work kept us safe and fed and clothed and helped us to become independent and “leave the nest” when it was time. They were available after that when we had questions or concerns, even when we were financially independent.

 

“Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.”

—William Makepeace Thackeray

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day, a special day that’s widely celebrated in our times. It was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908, to become “an official U.S. holiday in 1914.”

Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.

Jarvis was right, the celebration hit one of the all-time highs in commercial endeavours, along with other days such as Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day and Christian holidays, yet each family or individual chooses what works best for them.

While we’ve never gone over the top with gifts, we took time to celebrate Mom on that day in some way, in something as simple as a phone call, sometimes with a plant for her verandah, because we knew she appreciated beauty and greenery.

To be true, it wasn’t  just on Mother’s Day; we visited whenever we could and occasionally went out for dinner, though that was usually saved for times we celebrated Mom and Dad together. And later as our parents needed support, we were there as often as we were able.

We are exhorted in Exodus (the Ten Commandments) to show honor to our parents.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

At each of our daughter’s weddings, Mom extended her love to them, too, by the respect she showed them as a grandmother to her granddaughter. And to the new additions to the family, their husbands. Her love and caring went on to envelop her great grandchildren too.

Mom is not here to celebrate with us now, but it doesn’t mean we forget. The same goes for Dad.

I’d also like to celebrate those women who mothered others, who longed to have children of their own though it was never possible. I count three of them among my close friends (one went on to adopt). They have, in turn, helped care for other children, including mine, when opportunity provided.

Also to women who gave up their children because they didn’t have the means to support a child at the time, who will forever be known as “birth moms.” I have friends who were adopted as children and came to honour both mothers in some way.

To all these women, thank you and Happy Mother’s Day!