By Jim McNally

The cynical among us will tell you that Mother’s Day is an invention of the candy factories, flower shops and greeting card companies as a means of pushing product.

And while the day still has its share of those things delivered to moms all over the world, other gifts seem to have moved to the top of mom’s wish list.
And most of them have less to do with sweet tooths, bouquets and catchy rhymes then they do with things a bit more meaningful.

For example, a few years ago Statesville businesswoman and erstwhile politician Diane Hamby asked for just one thing from her husband, that he quit smoking.

“He kept saying, ‘Don’t you want this?’ and ‘Don’t you want that?’” Hamby said. “I said, ‘No, I just want you to quit smoking.’ And he did. He hasn’t smoked since.”

For Edith Krueger of Mooresville, a day with her two children would mean the world.

“I would just love to have them visit me,” she said. “I know for one of them, who lives in Minnesota, it would be almost impossible, but a visit and for them to recognize me would be all I could ask for.”

Debra Ann Campbell, of Troutman, concurred with that.

“I want my two sons to come over and go to church we me for Mother’s Day,” she said.

Amanda Johnson, also of Troutman, said her Mother’s Day gift a couple of years ago was her daughter.

“But this year a special gift would be for all the mothers in our family to get together and have a nice day together.”

The ideal gift for Sandra Meehan, of Statesville, would be for her broken family to be closer.

“It’s a long story but I have a 19-year-old son who lives with his father and I just wish we could all get along better,” she said. “I think that would be all I would ask for.”

Ula Gore, of Mooresville, said the answer to the question for her and her blended family is a simple one.

“Good health,” she said. “I can’t think of anything that is more important that for all of us to be healthy.”

Gore and her husband, Robert, have five grown children between them.

Valerie Mills wants to get her mother something unique, like a day of getting spoiled.

“I call it a ‘spa day,’” said Mills, who lives in Troutman. “It would be a day where she could get a body wrap and have her body detoxified in clay and relax and be treated special. It’s something she wouldn’t expect.”

Nancy Davis, of Statesville, said that is the best kind of gift; a total surprise.

Davis said she likes it when her two college-aged daughters “conspire” to come up with the perfect present.

“I just like when they get together and do something without asking what mama wants,” she said.

But Davis said Mothers Day has lost some of its luster in recent years.

She said her family had a tradition of gathering all the older women together and treating them special.

“They loved being fussed over and feted,” she said. “But now they’re all gone and Mother’s Day doesn’t seem as special anymore.”

Not as special, perhaps, but special nonetheless.

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