And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count, but the life in your years." Abraham Lincoln
Marian McQuade, the lady responsible for the establishment of Grandparents Day, began early in life to appreciate the value and the contributions of senior citizens.
Marian Herndon was born in 1917 in Caperton, West Virginia. As a child, she would often walk miles with her grandmother, who visited elderly shut-ins in their farming community.
Marian mused in later years," I never forgot talking with those delightful people. That's where my love and respect for oldsters started."
As a young woman, Marian was kept busy. She married her high school sweetheart, coal miner Joe McQuade, and they had fifteen children together. However, her interest in enriching the lives of senior citizens simmered beneath the surface while she carried out her numerous child-rearing activities.
In 1956, she helped the local newspaper editor, Jim Comstock, organize the first "Past 80 Party". The participants gathered in Richmond for an enjoyable afternoon of feasting, contests, games and entertainment. The party continues to be an annual event in the West Virginia city to this day.
But Marian was concerned about the elderly shut-ins and those in nursing homes who couldn't get to the party. She realized that family members sometimes remembered them at Christmas and on birthdays, but the seniors were often lonely and neglected for the rest of the year. Even more heartbreaking, some had no family at all.
After five years of intense lobbying, she persuaded Governor Arch Moore to proclaim May 27, 1973, as Grandparents Day. West Virginia was the first state to celebrate the occasion.
Then Marion began a nation campaign. With the help of the media, and supporters across the country, letters went out to governors and politicians from every state, as well as to churches and businessmen across the country. In 1978. her efforts paid off.
President Jimmy Carter declared that National Grandparents Day would be celebrated on first Sunday after Labor Day. September was deemed appropriate because seniors could be considered to be in the autumn of their lives. ( Besides , May already had a surplus of special days.)
Grandparents Day has three official purposes:
(1) To honor grandparents.
(2) To give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children's children.
(3) To help children become aware of the strength, information and guidance older people can offer..
Its official flower is the forget-me-not. It even has its own song: " A Song for Grandma and Grandpa", by Johnny Prill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =Wfp0zFYdJHc
Marian did not forget the seniors without families. It was suggested that families include elders without kin in their celebrations. For those who had no livng grandparents, the "Adopt a Grandparent" program was introduced, and that initiative has grown and spread across the country.
Marian McQuade, mother of 15, grandmother of 43 and great-grandmother of 15, died at 91 years of age in 2008. She died of heart failure at Oak Hill, West Virginia.
However, Grandparents Day lives on, and continues to grow in popularity not only in the United States, but around the world.
Because of the tireless efforts of one housewife from West Virginia, we have a permanent way to honor grandparents and to recognize the positive contributions of senior citizens in societies across the land.
As the German proverb so wisely reminds us: "The oldest trees often bear the sweetest fruit".
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