By Lani Sheldon
Published: May 8, 2014
For the past two years I requested only one ‘real’ gift for mothers day: a single fern to plant in our front garden. I don’t have a magical tale of why this tradition started, I think perhaps I happened to notice a lovely fern while out shopping at a time that also happened to coincide with Mother’s Day, and suggested this to my husband.
I am not the easiest person to buy for at Mother’s Day. Cut flowers were never my thing. I rarely wear any jewellery. Chocolate is always a winner but not the best idea to try and hoard it to yourself around a 2 year old. When my daughter was an infant the only thing I really wanted was to sleep in past 5 am.
Mother’s Day originated in the early 1900s with humble and tragic beginnings. In 1905 Ann Marie Jarvis passed away on the second Sunday in May. A dedicated community activist working to improve health conditions inside community households, her work raised funds to support caring for mothers suffering from tuberculosis.
When Ann passed away, her daughter Anna took up the cause to make Mother’s Day a holiday, honouring motherhood through community service. The first official Mother’s Day event was a memorial service Anna held for her mother in 1907.
Mother’s Day was to be a time to visit your mother and thank her for all of her sacrifices; and if you were unable to do so you wrote her a handwritten letter.
The rise in consumerism that followed contradicted Anna’s original intentions for the holiday and what her mother stood for. She passionately battled against the commercialization of Mother’s Day until she was admitted into an asylum in 1944, dying four years later without any children of her own.
So while I sit on my front porch admiring the little family of ferns now growing in my garden (or getting trampled by toddlers), it will be the thought, not the pricetag, behind them that warms my heart. I will write a letter to my own mother (by hand) and send it to her (by post) thanking her for all that she has taught me. I will read it to my daughter and tell her about how motherhood is challenging, life-altering, frustrating and joyful all at the same time; and that today is a day to remember that mothers need to be cared for as well.
Then we will plant another fern.
Lani Sheldon is a local web designer and the creator of the community resource page Squamish Baby. For information on local events and resources for families visit http://squamishbaby.com.
