Grandparents Day
Our nation loves to observe special days, and now for the past 21 years, we have Grandparent's Day on the first Sunday after Labor Day — today. When a Syracuse, NY, woman, Hermine B. Hanna, first conceived the idea way back in 1961, it was only the beginning of a long struggle for official recognition. Credit for persisting enough to get it on the calendar is given to Marian McQuade, a Fayette County, VA, housewife. She and her husband, Joe, were parents of 15, grandparents of 40 and great-grandparents of eight.
An advocate for senior citizens since 1956, she felt compassion for the lonely elderly isolated at home or in nursing facilities and also wanted to encourage children to spend time with their own grandparents. She became vice chairman of the West Virginia Committee on Aging in 1971 and was a delegate to the White House Conference on Aging. The observance spread to Canada in 1995, and is observed in the United Kingdom the first Sunday in October. In France, Grandemere gets her day on the first Sunday in March, while Grandpere is honored on the first Sunday in October.
Mrs. McQuade began the Grandparent's Day campaign in West Virginia, where it was first proclaimed in 1973 by Gov. Arch Moore, the same year the resolution was introduced by Sen. Jennings Randolph in the US Senate. It took five more years of campaigning, letter writing and contacting influential persons to get the legislature to proclaim the first Sunday after Labor Day as Grandparent's Day. President Jimmy Carter eventually signed the proclamation. September was chosen supposedly because of symbolism with the Autumn of life. The official flower is the forget-me-not.
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