The World’s Outstanding Women (WOW): A Woman Called Mother

Throughout history women have made their mark in a wide variety of ways.  Each Saturday I plan to highlight one of these remarkable women.  There will be no limit to the areas of history that I may include; however as a guide I will look to the month of their birth, the month of their death or the month associated with their mark in history when I select them.  Is there an outstanding women in history you would like me to include?  I welcome your suggestions.  Would you like to guest blog one of the world’s outstanding women?  Let me hear from you.

This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States and countries all over the world celebrate this person in their lives in different ways and on different dates on the calendar but we can all agree that she or whoever fulfills her role is someone special.  Today I celebrate the mother as a World’s Outstanding Woman.

I would be amiss if I didn’t start with my own.  She left us this year but she will never be forgotten.

Mary Josephine Ryan

I Still Miss Her

It seems like only yesterday
I sent a Mother’s Day card away.
I didn’t think it would be the last,
I signed it with love and mailed it fast.
Now that she has gone away,
It doesn’t feel like Mother’s Day.
There are no more chances to send a card,
To ship some flowers, to make a call.
There’s no more thanking her for all she’s done.
No more visits,
No more fun.
I cannot hug her or kiss her cheek.
I cannot even share a laugh.
It all too quickly became the past.
I took each visit with her for granted.
I thought there’d always be more to come.
The camera lies still now
From her use and mine.
All the pictures have been taken,
All the memories have been made.
All the words have been spoken,
All the letters have been mailed.
The thing I miss the most of all
Has got to be her voice
Whether on the telephone or talking face to face.
I’d wish for one more conversation either here or at her place.
I know I’ll see her again some day,
We’ll share the sights of heaven.
We’ll talk, we’ll laugh, we’ll hug,
We’ll kiss….it’ll be Mother’s Day once more.
But until then I’ll be a mom for Mother’s Day instead of
Being a daughter.

by Pam Shattuck

Michelangelos Pieta Mary and Jesus

Florence Thompson with several of her children in a photograph known as “Migrant Mother”. Photographed by Dorothea Lange in 1936

ST-498-1-62 19 November 1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her children John F. Kennedy Jr. and Caroline Kennedy riding. Photograph distributed by the White House for the children’s birthdays, 1962. Photograph in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.
-Jackie Kennedy

Princess Diana with her children Prince Harry and Prince William

 

I live for my sons. I would be lost without them.

-Princess Diana

Anna Marie Jarvis, Founder of Mother’s Day in the United States

I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mothers day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.

—Ann Reeves Jarvis

Lucille Ball and her children Lucy Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Showering their mother, Harriet Nelson (center) with affection are her sons David (left) and Ricky (right).