MOTHERS all over Guyana were remembered at a ceremony titled the ‘The crowning of mothers’ sponsored by the People’s National Congress (PNC) Georgetown group in D’Urban Street on Tuesday.

In a special pre-mother’s day ceremony, Monica Thomas, who chaired the event stated that so as not to get in the way of bigger events planned for Mother’s Day, which is being observed today, the group decided to have their event of placing a crown on each mother present. The ceremony took place on May 8, to honour all mothers in the whole of Guyana, even though only those who were present could have received the crown.

“We know that mothers are very special and so we want to honour all of you throughout this beautiful country – Guyana- by way of this simple ceremony being held here,” Thomas said. After inviting one of the participants to offer a word of prayer to officially open the ceremony, she then invited the Hon. Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence to give the feature address.

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
Minister Lawrence had only words of encouragement to present to the many women and a number of men who were in attendance at the ‘crowning’ event. “I want to pray that God will continue to shower His blessings and most of all His grace and favour upon you; that you will be not only good mothers but strong mothers because that is what we want,” the Minister said. “I want to remind you also that it’s not only your children that you mothered but all the children in the world who were mothered. You can’t look to a man and call him ‘mother’, you have to call him ‘father’; you can only look to a woman and call her ‘mother’.”

She said that there is that something inside of the woman; that something that God has put inside of the woman that is so unique – that love inside of each woman that cannot be taken out and put on a shelf because it is deep within.

CRUEL PRACTICES OF WOMEN
Minister Lawrence told the participants, who sat listening carefully, that cruelty is not a natural part of a woman. She said, “When you see women being cruel to their children and doing bad things to them, it cannot be of the natural because that is not what God mad made women for; it cannot be.”

She made reference to a matter of extreme cruelty by a mother to her children, which was in the news recently; speaking of how so many people condemned her on Facebook in particular and said, “I want to say that it is always good to look at somebody’s shoes and think that you can wear it, but when you put it on you recognise that it is not your fit,” she said, urging that women be good women so that they can then be good mothers – to every child.

Meanwhile, following the Minister’s address to the mothers and some fathers who attended the event, the floor was then open for remarks, and many of the mothers took the opportunity.

The general trend of the conversation and comments made by many of the mothers were centered on encouraging all mothers to be strong and courageous in the face of the various challenges of motherhood.

Some of the sentiments were as follows: “Mothers must be fighters for the good of our children – battling with the intention of winning”; “We are humans and sometimes we make mistakes, but if we desire to change for the better we have to seek forgiveness and strive to do better”; ” I thank God that he allowed me to become a mother and I realise that I have to be a mother not only to my child but also to many other children all over Guyana and where ever I go.”

The chairperson, in her closing remarks especially thanked the Minister for her role in the evening’s proceedings; she also thanked all those who were present for their attendance and participation. The ceremony ended with a lot of edibles and drinks as those in attendance continued to socialise. mercilinburke2017@gmail.com