Mother's Day 2026

 Happy Mother's Day

My Mom
Sidney J. Doan

Today is a day when our thoughts turn to the great women in our lives, Mothers. I write that in plural because there are many mothers in our lives worthy of recognition.

I especially remember my mom. It is now the fifth Mother's Day since she passed. I give thanks for the other mothers in my life including my wife, Chris, and my daughters. 

I was reminded of the proclamation issued by President Ronald Reagan on April 26, 1988:

Maternal love is the first tangible bond any human being knows. It is a tie at once physical, emotional, psychological, and mystical. With all of the words that have been written about motherhood, all of the poems of tribute and gratitude that have been penned through the ages, all of the portraits of a mother and child that have been painted down the centuries, none has come close to expressing in full the thankfulness and joy owing to mothers.

The mark of motherhood, as the story of Solomon and the disputed infant in the first Book of Kings shows, is a devotion to the well-being of the child so total that it overlooks itself and its own preferences and needs. It is a love that risks all, bears all, braves all. As it heals and strengthens and inspires in its objects an understanding of self-sacrifice and devotion, it is the parent of many another love as well.

The arms of a mother are the newborn's first cradle and the injured child's first refuge. The hands of a mother are the hands of care for the child who is near and of prayer for the one who is far away. The eyes of a mother are the eyes of fond surprise at baby's first step, the eyes of unspoken worry at the young adult's first voyage from home, the eyes of gladness at every call or visit that says she is honored and remembered. The heart of a mother is a heart that is always full.

Generation after generation has measured love by the work and wonder of motherhood. For these gifts, ever ancient and ever new, we cannot pause too often to give thanks to mothers. As inadequate as our homage may be and as short as a single day is to express it -- "What possible comparison was there,'' a great saint wrote of his mother, "between the honor I showed her and the service she had rendered me?'' -- Mother's Day affords us an opportunity to meet one of life's happiest duties.

Proclamation 5801 Mother's Day, 1988, April 26, 1988, President Ronald Reagan

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL