May 7, 2021
Any mother who has had to bury her child one of the most devastating and enduring tragedies of motherhood can take heart on Mother’s Day. You are not alone. The mother who was the very inspiration for the holiday, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis, lost
seven of her 11 children during the mid-1800s in rural Virginia.
The dedication to honoring and supporting mothers displayed by Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis inspired her daughter Anna Jarvis, who never married or had children, to lobby for a holiday to honor “the best mother who ever lived your mother.” After a few years of local celebrations, Mother’s Day became a national holiday on May 9, 1914, following the proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson, who declared the second Sunday of May “a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”