05/08/2026
Happy Mother's Day from the Officers and Members of IOOF Saint Louis Lodge No. 5!
Mother’s Day 2026: Honoring the Love, Sacrifice, and Strength of Mothers
Mother’s Day is a time for reflection, gratitude, and honor. It is a day set aside to recognize the love, sacrifice, guidance, and strength of mothers everywhere. For the members of IOOF Saint Louis Lodge No. 5, and for the wives, widows, families, and friends connected to Wildey Lodge No. 2, this day carries a meaning that reaches deeply into the heart of Odd Fellowship.
The principles of our Order, Friendship, Love, and Truth, are lived daily through the example of mothers. A mother’s friendship is often the first friendship we ever know. Her love is often the first love that teaches us patience, forgiveness, kindness, and service. Her truth is often spoken not only through words, but through sacrifice, discipline, prayer, encouragement, and quiet endurance.
Mother’s Day in the United States was officially established in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed the second Sunday in May as a national holiday to honor mothers. But the organized celebration of Mother’s Day began earlier, in 1908, through the dedication of Anna Jarvis.
Anna Jarvis founded Mother’s Day to honor her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, a woman who had spent much of her life serving others. Ann Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Work Days” to help improve health, sanitation, and care within her community. Her work was rooted in service, compassion, and the belief that mothers had a powerful role in healing families and communities.
The first official Mother’s Day service was held on May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. At that service, white carnations were distributed because they were Anna Jarvis’s mother’s favorite flower. The white carnation became a symbol of purity, remembrance, and a mother’s enduring love.
For Odd Fellows, this history speaks directly to our mission. Mother’s Day is not simply about cards, flowers, or gifts. It is about remembering the women whose love helped shape our character, whose sacrifices helped build our homes, and whose faith and strength helped carry families through difficult seasons.
Anna Jarvis herself later became disappointed by the commercialization of Mother’s Day. She believed the day should remain personal, sincere, and heartfelt. She wanted people to honor their mothers with genuine words, acts of love, and meaningful remembrance.
That message is worth hearing today.
To the mothers among us, we say thank you.
To the wives who have stood beside members of the Lodge through years of service, meetings, charity, and fraternity, we say thank you!
To the woman of Wildey Lodge No. 2, whose love and loyalty remain part of the living history of Odd Fellowship, we say thank you.
To the mothers who are still with us, may we honor them with our time, our respect, and our love.
To the mothers who have passed on, may we honor them through remembrance, gratitude, and by living lives worthy of the sacrifices they made.
Motherhood is one of the greatest examples of service before self. It teaches the world that love is not merely spoken, it is shown. It is shown in sleepless nights, hard work, encouragement, correction, comfort, prayer, and devotion.
As Odd Fellows, we are called to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan. These duties remind us that true fraternity begins with compassion. And few people teach compassion more powerfully than mothers.
This Mother’s Day 2026, may the members of IOOF Saint Louis Lodge No. 5 pause to honor not only their own mothers, but all the mothers, wives, widows, grandmothers, stepmothers, foster mothers, and motherly figures who have blessed our lives.
May we remember the lesson behind the day: that love, when placed into action, becomes service.
And may every mother know that her sacrifices have not gone unseen, her love has not gone unnoticed, and her legacy continues through every life she has touched.
Happy Mother’s Day 2026 to all mothers!
May Friendship, Love, and Truth surround you always.
Fraternally,
Bro. Casey Brizendine
Noble Grand
IOOF Saint Louis Lodge No. 5
