327. My History with Mother’s Day
My history with Mother’s Day began of course when I was a little girl giving things to my mother. And I did that—buying her books or something with strawberries, many cards which she very carefully saved.
When I became a Mother, and had four children in six years, Nelson helped them get things for me when they were little. By the time we moved to New York, they were in school and in Sunday School, and began coming home with little containers that they had fashioned out of clay and painted and I graciously accepted them. I have two or three of them still which I keep paper clips in. On the bottom of each etched in the clay are the initials D.P. which helps me not at all. The children’s names are Donna Price, David Price, Debra Price, and Dara Price so you can see who D.P. stands for.
When that phase was over, I gathered the kids and said to them, “You know I think it’s a hokey holiday, just drummed up to sell cards and candy and knick-knacks. I want to be loved all the time. So let’s just drop this Mother’s Day thing.” And we did for years. I continued to send my Mother the cards and gifts but we did nothing special at our house for the occasion.
In 1984 in April my Mother died. And as May approached and I realized I had no Mother to send a card to, or to buy a gift for, it hit me hard. I called each child and said, “I changed my mind. I want you to observe Mother’s Day—the whole bit.”
And they’ve done that ever since.
