Senior mothers honoured with party
When Philadelphia schoolteacher Anna M. Jarvis had the first Mother’s Day named in her honour over a century ago, who would have thought that the celebration would have caught on in such a big way? However, it’s easy to see why. Everyone has a mother and today the senior moms of Helpage Belize had their special treat.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Mother’s Day is not until Sunday, but that didn’t stop the House of Culture from staging a pre-Mother’s Day celebration…It was all about karaoke.
Ruby Montes says karaoke is her newfound pastime.
Ruby Montes
“I love to sing and love to dance. Dance is what I love from I am a young girl.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“How long you’ve known that song “Sad Movies”?
Ruby Montes
“I sing that at my home, sometimes nearly everyday.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You watch karaoke on TV?”
Ruby Montes
“I watch it babes and they tell me that they will have something there and I want to go there because I want to sing and I want to dance.”
And what would a Mother’s Day event be without prizes and surprises. The mothers with the most children were honoured for their labours.
For Gloria McKoy, seventy-two years old, it was a double celebration. It was her birthday and she also has fourteen children.
Gloria McKoy
“I feel good and I look good, and I keep myself good and I’m proud of it. No mind all don’t mine (take care of) me, but God mine me.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“You have an opportunity to get a lot of presents on Mother’s Day? You get a lot of presents from your children?”
Gloria McKoy
“I no get no lot of presents from them because they are not here, only one. But the one weh here will give me something, but he is not here right.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“But the others don’t send things for you?”
Gloria McKoy
“No, they don’t mine me, only one. They in the States and they working all about, but they no look at me, only one.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So when some people say, well it’s good to have a lot of children because they will take care of you, that’s not true?”
Gloria McKoy
“That’s not true. But I’m taking care of myself, one daughter take care of me.”
Ivorine Patterson also had fourteen children.
Ivorine Patterson
“I neva like it, but I had to have it. It was rough. I neva had no mother you see, my mother dead when I young. That’s the reason why I have so much. Been with one man sixteen years and I had to left him, then I gone with another one and have some next set.”
Singing, dancing and great food, a lovely way to recognise the contributions of our most experienced mothers. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
Not all of us still have our mothers. If you do, don’t forget to let her know you care.
