It's Not Just Moms Who Give Motherly Love

The Boston Herald 

She never had any children, not because she didn't want them but because she couldn't have them. She tried for years, during her 20s and 30s, without success. In the beginning, people would ask her, ``So when are you going to start a family?'' And she would smile and say, ``We're trying.’’

She's in her 60s now, the pressure to have a baby long gone. But not the yearning. Mother's Day is hard for her - the racks full of cards, the TV ads, the celebration of something she ached for and never got.

It's hard to be childless on Mother's Day when all you ever wanted was to be a mother. It's hard to be childless too, when motherhood was never your thing, but you were young then. And you ask yourself now that you're older, ``What was I thinking? What have I missed?’' 

Of course, you don't have to have a child to love one. All you have to do is leave your door and your heart open.

I like the cards that celebrate not only mothers and grandmothers, but motherly love: ``You've been like a mother to me.'' ``To my favorite aunt on Mother's Day.’’ Isn't it nurturing that Mother's Day really honors? Isn't it the guiding, supporting, encouraging and loving no matter what?

Mothers do these things, but so do wives and aunts and neighbors and friends. Who brings you ice cream when you're sick? Who lifts you up when you're down? Who says, ``Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine,'' when they're as scared as you?

Mothers, yes, but friends and great aunts, too.

Ann Galvin was a teacher for nearly 40 years. She guided, encouraged and nurtured hundreds of children. She may not have been the one they called for in the middle of the night, but they called for her every day for all of fourth grade. ``Miss Galvin, Miss Galvin. Pick me.'' Miss Galvin was part of their world.

She's part of her nieces' and nephews' world, too. ``Will you? Can you?'' they call and say. And, just like a mother, she answers, ``Yes.’'

Same thing with Judy Taylor. She and her husband brag about their nephew. They take him on vacations. They listen to his dreams. They would do anything for him. Love. It's not exclusive to mothers. It comes from mothering.

So here's to all the nonmothers who mother, including people like Sister Beatrice and all the other Little Sisters of the Poor, who mother the residents of Somerville's Jeanne Jungan house not just on Mother's Day, but every day.

Will any of these women get a card or a phone call on Mother's Day? It's unlikely. But they should.