Backward Glance – a tribute to mothers

The first instance of a day celebrating mothers dates back to Greek and Roman times.

Early Christians also celebrated Mother’s Day. It was part of their Lenten traditions, the period leading up to Easter.

This celebration honoured the Virgin Mary and was held on the fourth Sunday of Lent.

As time passed, this celebration came to be known as Mothering Sunday, a holiday which is widely celebrated in England.

In Australia today, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.

The tradition of gift giving to mothers on Mother’s Day was started in Australia by Mrs Janet Heyden from Sydney, who started a campaign in 1923 to raise money for the lonely and forgotten mothers she met when visiting a Sydney Hospital.

Newspapers reported of Mrs Heyden’s appeals and, through leading Sydney business outlets, the donations started to arrive.

Goods such as soaps, knitted items, confectionery and other presents amounted to a tonne of gifts in that first year.

World War I had left many Australian women heartbroken due to the loss of their husbands, sons and close family members.

Every year Mrs Heyden campaigned and she was successful in raising money and gifts for the lonely and forgotten.

Retail stores all over Australia later took up the idea.

Mrs Heyden is important because she brought the communities together during that time for a common cause – the love of a mother or grandmother and the sense of belonging.

Early pioneer stories of the Sunshine Coast tell of brave, frugal mothers and grandmothers who sometimes endured hardships and isolation but still had time for laughter and the love of a child.

One of Queensland’s most famous mothers, Lady Phyllis Cilento, was known as the “medical mother”.

She was a pioneer general practitioner and is honored for her outstanding contribution as a medical pioneer in children’s health.

The Children’s Hospital in Brisbane is named after her.

Phyllis and her husband Raphael had six children.

The Cilento family had purchased an acre of land near Kings Beach in 1929.

They loved the Caloundra area where the children could roam freely gathering shells and swimming in the rock pools.

There was no doctor in Caloundra in those early times and when the Cilentos came for holidays they were often called on to attend to local medical emergencies.

An interview held in the Sunshine Coast Libraries Local Studies unit describes a story of Jack Spender and Ben Bennett of Metropolitan Caloundra Surf Life Saving Club and the rescue of Lady Cilento from drowning in the 1930s.

Jack Spender recalled: “I was coming back around the front of the club house, and the fellas were already sitting down to dinner.

“I saw two heads out in the surf, in that area near the rocks.

“There’s a sweep, where those rocks went out. There was then, and I think still possibly, a constant sweep running out there.

“I saw these two heads in the water, where there ought not to be any people at all because it was after patrol hours. So I yelled out “rescue”.

“By the time I got there I saw the couple were a man and a woman.

“The man was a bit further out, but I went to the woman first because you always did that.

“Benny Bennett who was a local identity had heard about the rescue and he came out just after me. He went and got hold of the man.

“They got the two reels out of the club house and they got them down and two beltman came out.

“One took the lady from me and the other took the chap from Benny Bennett.

“Ben and I swam in down the beach a bit, not swimming against that current, down the beach and came in.

“As it turned out the lady was Lady Cilento who became known as the Medical Mother.

She was the wife of Sir Raphael Cilento.

“The man was a newly appointed Professor of Human Movement at the Queensland University.

“He was a professor, a chap called Iva Burgh and he had never been in the surf before.

“He was a house guest of the Cilentos. Of course they had their little cottage up there.

“It had been hot and they had gone for a cooling surf.

“Of course they went in where they ought not to have gone. Then they got into trouble, you see.”

The story ended well and the medical mother and the professor never forgot that brave deed by the lifesavers from Caloundra.

Mary Keleher (nee Grigor) of Wootha was a mother of four children.

Her husband, injured in a road accident in 1942, was hospitaliaed and not able to work for more than two years.

During this time, Mary kept their dairy farm and large piggery running.

Mary made time for the community, grew all of the family’s fruit and vegetables and raised poultry as well as being an accomplished equestrienne winning countless ribbons at country shows.

She never allowed anything to defeat her.

Chaperoning by mothers was common place when young ladies wanted to attend the local dance or the pictures in the 1940s.

June Sommer’s memoirs tell of her mother Daisy Nama attending the dance with all of her seven daughters: “On Saturday nights, Mum and I would ride down the range from Mapleton on the bus. Dances usually began about 6pm”.

Yandina farmer Clive Sommer had his eye on June and would walk to Nambour about 10km or if allowed, he used his father’s truck.

When June turned 16, Clive asked her out to the pictures. ‘Naturally mum chaperoned us and we bought our own tickets’.

The pair married in 1947 at the Methodist church in Nambour and had their reception at the White Rose Café.

Their four children were born in Nambour Hospital.

Peg Burnett, of Maleny, had a fond memory of her mother Francis McLean.

Peg said: “My mother had a good figure because she had a big family of seven children and adopted one more. My selfless mother always served herself last”.

Today a bunch of chrysanthemums is synonymous with our Australian Mother’s Day observance.

Australian memories and stories tell us that is the flower chosen because Chrysanthemum flowers are in bloom during May and their flower name ends with the word “mum”.

On Sunday, Sunshine Coast mothers, step mothers, grandmothers and special carers of children will receive homemade cards and gifts or perhaps as a special treat breakfast in bed from those they love and look after throughout the year.

As well, it is a special day to acknowledge and support those lone mothers and carers with families and the disadvantaged in our neighborhood with no close family to support them during hard times.

Many mothers had wise words and one was “kindness costs nothing”.

Thanks to Sunshine Coast Council’s Heritage Library Officers for the words and Picture Sunshine Coast for the images.

_In 2017 we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Naming of the Sunshine Coast. For more information on this milestone anniversary visit www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/fifty_

Image captions:

Hero image: Mother and children outside Geritz's humpy, Palmwoods, 1907.

Carousel images:

Image 1: Myrtle Hoare with friends on the Headland at Coolum, ca 1930.

Image 2: Jessie Suosaari with her children and the tractor used to haul cane trucks on their farm at Bli Bli, ca 1950.

Image 3: Thelma Leadbetter enjoying time with her family at Alexandra Headland, 1948.

Image 4: Mothers of children attending Glenview School enjoying a break up day picnic in the grounds of the Glenview Hall, ca 1930.