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
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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