Thanks for sharing the story of your mother’s last moments with us. I wish people talked more openly about death. You set a good example.

Mine did her damnedest to keep me from growing up, but somehow I managed. Maybe it’s not too late for you, either.

Mothers’ Day was held in Boston in 1872 at the suggestion of Julia
Ward Howe, writer of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

But it was Anna Jarvis, daughter of a Methodist minister in Grafton,
West Virginia, who made it a national event.

During the Civil War, Anna Jarvis’ mother organized Mothers’ Day Work
Clubs to care for wounded soldiers, both Union and Confederate.

She raised money for medicine, inspected bottled milk, improved
sanitation and hired women to care for families where mothers
suffered from tuberculosis.

In her mother’s honor, Anna Jarvis persuaded her church to set aside
the 2nd Sunday in May, the anniversary of her mother’s death, as a
day to appreciate all mothers.

Encouraged by the reception, Anna Jarvis organized it in
Philadelphia, then began a letter-writing campaign to ministers,
businessmen and politicians to establish a national Mothers’ Day.

In response, on MAY 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the
first National Mothers’ Day as a “public expression of…love and
reverence for the mothers of our country.”

I guess there IS a sliver of truth to the “America’s Spiritual Heritage” resolution…

“Call your Mother.” Agreed, I just have’nt found the perfect derisive term that will inflict the appropriate amount of pain. Still searching.

NeoWolfe