Style: May 04, 2017

16 STYLE | report
[Anna Jarvis] advocated boycotts of
Mother’s Day and tried to sue companies
that were commercialising the holiday.
2ANN JARVIS
Ann Jarvis (1832-1905) was the mother who inspired Mother’s
Day, due to her daughter wanting to recognise the achievements
of her life.
As was the way for many poor women of the time, only four
of Ann’s 13 babies children survived. Because of this, Ann wanted
to help other mothers and organised Mother’s Day Work Clubs
in West Virginia. These organisations helped to provide medical
care, raise money for medicines, and improve sanitary conditions
for poor mothers.
After Ann’s death, daughter Anna Jarvis continued her mother’s
work by writing letters and giving speeches in support of
Mother’s Day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson designated
Mother’s Day a national holiday.
Anna never became a mother herself, and she became
horrified by how flower, chocolate, and greeting-card companies
exploited Mother’s Day for their own financial gain. She
advocated boycotts of Mother’s Day and tried to sue companies
that were commercialising the holiday.
3IRENA SENDLER
Irena Sendler (1910-2008) worked for the Warsaw Social
Welfare Department and was responsible for saving the lives of
almost 2500 Jewish children, smuggling them out of the Warsaw
Ghetto during the Holocaust.
Using the code name ‘Jolanta’, Irena gave the children false
identification documents, established temporary (non-Jewish)
identities for them, and placed them in convents, orphanages, and
Christian homes.
Arrested by the Nazis, tortured and sentenced to execution
(which she avoided thanks to the Zegota bribing a guard), Irena
never gave up information about the whereabouts of the children
or the inner workings of her smuggling operation.
A mother of three herself, Irena received Poland’s Order of the
White Eagle in 2003.
They smuggled out babies in ambulances
and trams, some wrapped in packages.
The names of hundreds of children she saved
were known because Mrs Sendler kept a list
buried in a jar under an apple tree.