Mother's Day Shines for all Generations
Posted on March 31, 2025 by Colette Tracy, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.
This is an article I wrote for the Enterprise Newspaper It was based upon the stories of senior women; their lives, loves, and joys.
Mother’s Day Shines for all Generations
Colette Tracy MBA, MA, MA Psych.
Helping Women in Midlife Find Purpose and Passion in Life so They can Have More Meaning and Joy | Author | Educator | Coach for midlife women
November 14, 2016
By Colette Tracy | For the Enterprise
On May 8, people around the world celebrate Mother’s Day. Though approximately 70 countries celebrate Mother’s Day on this day in particular, the concept of motherhood and women’s roles differ from person to person. Even among the previous generations, opinions vary as to what exactly it means to be a mother. It is interesting to note differences in perspectives on life yet understand that certain values are all the same.
Heritage Woods, an assisted living community on Van Dyke Road, is a microcosm of these ideas. Many women of the “Silent Generation” live here and each has her own story to tell. These women grew up in different environments. Some came from small towns and relocated to Chicago, and others spent most of their lives in rural areas and farms.
Yvonne Adkins, age 92, was born and worked on a farm in Minnesota and did not think about having a career. Her life was about necessities. She was never college-bound but loved to dance. Recalling the town she grew up in, Atkins says relatives were all around. She remembers her grandpa who came from Norway. “Well in Porter there was just nothing there, mainly farmland,” she said. She met her husband on a blind date in high school and married at 22. They were married for 67 years. Atkins has two sons, was a homemaker and helped her husband with the farm for most of her life.
Barbara Sherwood, age 81, born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, was different than many other girls of her generation. By her freshman year of high school she already knew she wanted to be a legal secretary. “I was the first girl in my class to get a job,” Sherwood said. “I worked for a lady attorney who eventually became the number one judge in Chicago.” Although Sherwood met her husband at 21 and knew she wanted to marry him, she told him that she would not consider marrying him until she was 29 ½. “There were just too many other things that I wanted to do,” Sherwood said. At the age of exactly 29 1/2, she married her husband. They have one daughter and were married for 20 years.
June Smith, age 89, was born on the east side of Joliet. June was not passionate about school, but was interested in children early on. At a young age she babysat, and had various factory jobs. She looked at her work as necessity. “[It was] something that I had to do,” said Smith. She gave 25 years to factory work. June married and has two children and expressed motherhood as the joy of her life.
Kay Vanderbilt is celebrating her 90th birthday this spring. Kay was born in Newton, Iowa and expresses Christianity as the guiding principle in her life. Involvement in the church and volunteerism have been her greatest passions. While having a strong belief in education and the value of hard work, Kay spent her years before marriage and children, working for the war effort of World War II and the Federal Loan Office. She was 21 years old when she met her husband. She has three children and first became a mother at 25 years old.
Jeta Lowry, age 82, was born in southern Illinois and is from a town called Bluford. Jeta met her husband at 18 years old and was married for 50 years. They have three children, and while she worked for a time before they were born and for seven years after, she never considered her work a career. Like so many mothers she put all of her efforts and hopes into family and her children’s future.
Loretta Ciesielski, age 85, was born and raised in Laporte, Indiana. Ciesielski grew up during the time of the great depression and moved often, as a child. She worked in a Dairy Queen type of establishment as a young girl and eventually did administrative work for this establishment. Ciesielski remembers when she first met the man who would become her husband. “I gave him my phone number because my friends said that he had a red convertible!” Ciesielski said. She married him at 21 and they had two children together. They were married for 27 years before he had passed away. She never married again because he spoiled her, and the kids. She felt she would never find another like him. When I asked her about her children she said that were important to her life, but not the entirety of it. “They were always of the utmost importance, but I felt like I still had my own life because I always worked,” Ciesielski said.
Though they all had different career and familial aspirations, there is one unifying sentiment – they all love being mothers. When it comes to what they want most for their children, they all say the same thing; happiness, success on their own terms, and the joy that comes from living a good life.
