Boutique Reneé

Anna had incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association and although no one ever learned of another member of the corporation she always spoke of the group as “We.” She drew no income from the corporation. She even trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", including in it an official Mother’s Day program bearing the legend, “Official Program, all others are infringements”. And, she was very specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honor their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world. This proper placement of the apostrophe is also used in the language of the presidential declaration.

The success of the movement led Miss Jarvis to give up her former work as clerk for an insurance company. Her correspondence with churches, business men, governors and others overflowed the red brick house in which she lived with her blind sister, Elsinore, so she bought the house next door for storage.  

Sadly, by the mid 1920's, Anna had become adverse to the mass commercialization and what the holiday had become and spent the rest of her life fighting what she saw as an abuse of the celebration. She became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card. As she said, "A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother - and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment!"  

Additionally, her original symbolism of the use of the white carnation was changed for reasons of commercialism. In part due to the shortage of white carnations, and in part due to the efforts to expand the sales of more types of flowers for Mother's Day, the florists promoted wearing a red carnation if your mother was living, and a white one if she had passed. This was tirelessly promoted until it made its way into the popular observations at churches.

The grey-haired woman who founded the day out of sentimental devotion, reverence and love went to war against money-makers and the publicity seekers. She once threatened to sue Governor Al Smith of New York over plans for a gigantic Mother’s Day meeting in 1923. Eight years later she tangled with Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt over a rival Mother’s Day committee. And, in 1948 she was arrested for disturbing the peace while protesting against the commercialization of Mother's Day, where she finally said that she "wished she would have never started the day because it became so out of control."

Spending all her life and inheritance campaigning against the holiday, Anna's battle, however, was a losing one. Finally, retiring in semi-seclusion, she tended flowers grown from her mother’s grave and cared for her blind sister, Elsinore, her only close relative.  Anna Marie Jarvis never married and had no children and died penniless on November 24, 1948. In accordance with Anna's request, her funeral services consisted of a private graveside and simple Christian ceremony in the Jarvis family plot at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

Mother's Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States. Projections for the year 2025 show that Americans will spend approximately $34 billion on flowers, pampering gifts - like spa treatments, flowers, cards, and jewelry.