In the Philippines and in many countries around the world, no one needs to be reminded that today is Mother’s Day.
It’s not only the love and devotion Filipinos have for their mothers, commerce has made sure everyone knows Mother’s Day is special and needs to be celebrated with a gift or a special meal with members of the family making time for that.
Most of you have a special gift for the first woman who loved you. You call her Nanay, Mama, or Mommy – which was most likely the first word you said, according to language experts. It is usually the name one will call when half-conscious and in pain, or fully conscious and in deep trouble.
Today, many tributes to mothers will be written as notes, letters, poems — even a song. In this day of apps that can define a mother in any form of writing, we would like to remind you that a mother will be impressed with any form of greeting stating appreciation for her love. A gift is but an option dictated by creativity or financial condition.
Here are two things that a mother would like to hear or read today: her significance in a child’s life then and now, and the lessons she taught that helped them through school or the early career days. She’d like to hear, too: “I love you, Mom!”
As is usual for Mother’s Day, our reporters, as their job dictates, wrote about mothers who are extraordinary persons, who went through difficult times to fulfill their role, and whose successes are stated by the fine children they reared, or the careers they established. Every year they would find many mothers who live like super heroes to give their children better lives.
Among them are single mothers who worked two jobs, plus selling products on the side, to give food, shelter and education to their children. Many of today’s success stories have single mothers in the background.
And then there are the mothers of children with special needs. They are angels who gave up careers, changed routines, went back to school to seek knowledge on how to guide a special child. They also inspired family members to become active support group members to care for a sibling with special needs.
And there are surrogate mothers who do not have children of their own because they gave up relationships to “mother” siblings – or children of a relative who is working abroad.
There are also absentee mothers who gave up their physical presence to work overseas to pay for better living conditions of their children.
The element that strings their stories together is love for her children. As one mother said: “My children entrusted their lives to me, I would miss meals to save money to pay for their tuition.”
In many countries around the world, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, and in some countries it is a holiday. In the Philippines, Mother’s Day is not a holiday but as the day progresses, no one will miss the signs of holiday celebration in the restaurants, parks, and malls; and on the roads, expect traffic.