An early American Mother’s Day movement was led by Julia Ward Howe, author of “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and a famous Mother’s Day proclamation. 

It was a protest to the Civil War’s carnage by mothers who had lost their sons.

Anna Jarvis is credited with starting Mother’s Day in 1908. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation creating Mother’s Day as a national holiday to honor mothers.

“Before becoming a mother, I had a hundred theories on how to raise children,” wrote Kate Samperi. “Now we have seven children and only one theory: Love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved.”

Isaiah 49:15 says “Can a mother forget her baby, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?”

Solomon Rosenberg, his wife, their two sons and his mother and father were sent to a Nazi concentration camp. As long as you could work, you were allowed to live.

Solomon watched his elderly parents marched off to their deaths. He knew that David, his frail youngest son, would be next. Every evening Rosenberg returned to the barracks after backbreaking labor. When he found his family, they embraced and thanked God for another day of life.

One day he returned from work and discovered Joshua, his oldest son, weeping and praying. Joshua sobbed, “Today David wasn’t strong enough to work. So they came for him.”

“But where’s your mother?” asked Mr. Rosenberg. Joshua cried, “When they came for David, he was afraid and cried. Momma said, “David, there’s nothing to be afraid of; then she took his hand and went with him.”

Responsible mothers (and fathers) give their lives — their time, patience and love for their children in countless other ways. To paraphrase Mark Twain, I don’t believe this; I’ve seen and experienced it!) 

Wherever our mother is, let’s wish her a happy Mother’s Day.

Lange, the retired pastor of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Hazel Green, lives in Platteville.