RitzyToo! April-May 2014 | Page 8

Among other accomplishments, while in Boston that same year, she composed an historically powerful plea (generally considered to be the original Mothers’ Day proclamation), translated it into several languages, and widely distributed it internationally. She began energetically promoting the idea of a “Mother’s Day for Peace”. There has never been any doubt that Julia Howe’s heroic leadership for Peace remains inextricably tied to her impassioned promotion of Mother’s Day celebrations – something all who celebrate Mother’s Day should remember. In the end, the separate and yet similar visions of three women intertwined creating what morphed into the Mother’s Day largely celebrated today. To be sure, the motivations, dreams, and ideals of each culminated in a national Mother’s Day tradition that celebrates the tradition of a mother’s love and kindness toward her own and the world at large. It was Anna Reeves Jarvis’ daughter, Anna Jarvis, who picked up the torch, out of love and respect for her own mother, and finally succeeded in introducing Mother’s Day as a national movement, if you may. Anna taught in school in Grafton, West Virginia, for a while and later moved to be with her family in Philadelphia. Anna remained especially close to her mom, and as time would have it, she devoted herself to providing care and companionship for her ageing mother. Ultimately her mother passed in Philadelphia on May 9, 1905. As might be expected, Anna very much missed all that her mother had come to mean and turned her energies toward looking after her sister as 8| April-May | RitzyToo! | RitzyToo.com well as establishing a way to memorialize what her mother meant to her. As a result of her intensely meaningful relationship with her own mom and her personal cultural observations in general, Anna felt children often neglected to appreciate their mothers during the living years. Within two years of her mother’s death, Anna Jarvis disclosed, to her circle of supportive friends, her intentions to establish a formal opportunity for individuals to celebrate their appreciation for their own mothers and mothers in general. It was to this end, that Anna Jarvis dedicated the remainder of her life’s purpose which was to establish a national Mother’s Day to “honor mothers, living and dead”. Thanks to the focused efforts of Anna Jarvis, together with the earlier work of her mother and Julia Howe, who clearly saw a connection between the sanctity of motherhood and stopping the terrible carnage of wars, the first mother’s day was observed in honor of Anna Jarvis’ mother. Following this first recorded observance, the notion of a Mother’s Day Remembrance gained widespread popularity across the nation. Anna’s dream came true when