This coming Sunday we celebrate Mother’s Day – the day set aside each year to show the mothers in our lives how much we appreciate and love them. Below, please enjoy a letter written by Patti McKenna, a former Maryknoll Lay Missioner stationed in Venezuela, wherein she describes the preparations children around her are making for the upcoming Mother’s Day celebration. The letter, written in 1986, begins:
Happy Mothers’ Day!
May 11, 1986
Caracas, Venezuela
Dear Friends,
Greetings to all! Some celebrations have no boundaries, and the celebration of motherhood is one of them. As the children in the States prepare their special cards for Mom, here Amanda and Abby are busy doing the same things: collecting bits of lace, popsicle sticks and whatever else to assist them in the creation of that ever so special Mother’s Day gift. Our youth group is rehearsing a play they wrote for their mothers, and preparing a brunch they will surprise Mom with after the play. Our community school, a new team project to which I give much time and energy, is filled with eager children busily making their gifts, trying to print their names on carefully colored cards they’ve made, reciting their poems and practicing their songs…All for Mom. Somethings are universal, somethings are always special.
[…]
Love,
Patti and Gerry
