This is the day when people wax elogluent on the virtues of motherhood – and rightly so.
Here are a few words spoken or penned in tribute to specific mothers who might exemplify the beauty, fidelity, efficiency, endurance, patience, faith courage, tenderness, and love of mothers enshrined in many hearts:
– George Washington: “I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual, and physical education which I have received from my mother.”
– Abraham Lincoln: “All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.”
– Thomas Edison; “My mother was the makingof me. She was so true … that I felt I had someone to live for, someone I must not disappoint.”
– Kate Douglas Wiggin: “Most of all the other beautiful things in life come by twos and threes, by dozens and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers and sisters, aunts and cousins, but only one Mother in the whole world.”
Mother’s Day 1978, like the previous yearly commemorations, will call attention to the role of mother, individually and collectively. It’s a pleasant, deserved commemoration – a day of the heart, a family day, an occasion dedicated to love, the home, and similar cherished values.
The idea for a national Mother’s Day was advanced in May 1910 by Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia. An act of Congress in 1914 authorized the President to designate by proclamation the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day each year, and to request the display of the American Flag on govemment buildings and private homes.
The spirit and purpose of the day is to call to memory the mothers who have gone; to cheer and brighten the lives of those who remain; and to do signal reverence to the perennial mission of home and mother hood.
These are worthy objectives. The Herald encourages all to share them.