THE MOTHER BEHIND MOTHER'S DAY

The story behind Ana Jarvis's mother, one Anna Maria Reeves Jarvis, is just as interesting than the story of Mother's Day itself. The elder Mrs. Jarvis organized a series of "Mother's Work Camps" in West Virginia to improve health and sanitary conditions before the civil war. During the war she declared neutrality for her organizations and regularly aided soldiers in need on both sides of the struggle.