A year ago today, just two months into the pandemic, I wrote a Recharge headlined “The Radical Roots of Mother’s Day as a Pandemic-Fighting Movement,” a historical view long before “vaccine surplus” was a conceivable news story (and for much of the world, it still isn’t). I wrote then that for the millions of mothers working on the front lines and millions more incarcerated across America—80 percent of women in jail are mothers—spending Mother’s Day at a mandatory distance is a “test of resilience,” of “solidarity,” of many, many things. An 8-year-old and a 10-year-old had created an online newspaper with their mother called the Quarantine Times; a mother and a daughter had graduated that week in North Carolina together; doulas and midwives were organizing for workers’ rights; and 150 hospital staff got a musical surprise for Mother’s Day in the Bronx.
“Let us know how you view motherhood beyond Mother’s Day at recharge@motherjones.com,” we asked, promising to highlight your stories on “our new daily Recharge blog.”
New daily Recharge blog! A year and a blog and a vaccine later, we want to hear from you again: Is your family vaccinated? Did you see your mother or get seen by your mother yesterday? In person or remotely? Do you know the naming story and biography of our magazine’s namesake? (Are you a reader who addresses us in correspondence as “Dear Mother”?)
Mother’s Day has taken on new resonance as vaccine rates surge, but major challenges remain. The day is traceable to anti-war activist Anna Jarvis, blues pioneer Bessie Smith, voting-rights activist Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation”), and tens of billions of women throughout history. Share your 2021 stories of motherhood at recharge@motherjones.com.
