Holidays usually celebrate exceptional events or people who accomplished important feats of heroism in battle or social change.

Mother’s Day is different. There is no single mother who receives national acclaim on that day. It’s a day when every mother is honored by the family, and each of them is ranked at the top of the list.

If you were to name a woman to recognize as one of Maine’s all-time great mothers, who would your choice be? How about Patty Benjamin Washburn of Livermore? That was the person my aunt, Edith Labbie, Lewiston Journal Magazine Section columnist, selected to write about in the May 13, 1967, edition of the paper.

She said Patty Washburn “mothered the most illustrious flock of children this State has ever known.” Although she and her husband, Israel, lacked a wealth of material things, they were blessed with 11 children.

“When a child was born to her, she insisted that it be carried upstairs first that it might rise in the world,” she wrote, and those children grew up to make a considerable impact on this nation.

When they neared adulthood, she told them to aim at the moon.

“If you don’t hit it you will have the fun of watching your arrows go,” she said.

Her sons became governors of three states. There were senators, a ship’s captain in the Civil War, a minister to France, a secretary of state, a banker and industrialist, and the accomplishments of the famed Washburn clan go on and on.

Sometime this summer, it would be rewarding to take a drive north of Turner to Norlands in Livermore, where you can see and tour the mansion these great men built for their mother’s comfort.

Edith Labbie’s tribute to Maine mothers also tells of David and Lucy Marshall, who lived in a frontier cabin in Bethel.

“David was working in a nearby clearing one morning while his wife was preparing breakfast. Her three-day-old was in a cradle beside the hearth and her three-year-old son played outdoors when a messenger arrived with news of an approaching raiding party of Indians. The Marshalls ran to the woods and she hid the children. Their cabin was burned, but they were not found, and they headed for the settlement of Paris 20 miles away. Lucy’s strength was not enough to carry a child all the way, so David took turns taking a child ahead some distance, hiding it, and returning for Lucy and the other child. It was slow going, but they found a stray horse in a clearing and were able to reach safety.”

David Marshall built a mill at Hebron, then known as Shepherdstown. For years he sawed all the lumber for the fine old houses in that community. Lucy often told her children about her answered prayers during their ordeal in the Maine forest. The youngsters grew up and attended Hebron Academy.

The article said, “Such incidents were the rule rather than the exception in those days. Early Maine mothers were as much at ease with a rifle as with a spinning wheel.”

I was a young boy in 1944, but I remember the trip to town with my father to find a Mother’s Day gift. I checked the newspaper of May 6, 1944, to refresh my memory of Lewiston and Auburn at that time.

I found lots of ads for Waltham watches at Peck’s department stores and Rogers Jewelry Store. Some families would take mothers out to lunch or dinner at the White Horse Inn, a Chinese-American restaurant at Poland Spring, which was opening for the season. Also opening was “Swifty’s” Lighthouse Spa on the “McFalls Road” (Minot Avenue at outer Court Street). Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Swift were the new proprietors. Betty and Nancy, possibly their daughters, were the car hops ready to wait on you.

Another ad urged families to “Bring Mother to Conant’s Barn” at Paris Hill for dancing to Telix Gogan’s Orchestra. Some families might be planning to treat Mom to a night out with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra. That famous band was coming to the grand opening of “Dancetime” at the Maine State Fairgrounds in Lewiston the following Thursday. Tickets were $1.

Mother’s Day this year is Sunday, May 8, and as always families will find many memorable ways to honor Mom.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He may be reached by sending email to [email protected].