Mother's Day 2012

Joseph Turkaly (Josip Turkalj). Immigrant Mother [copy]. 1985. Cleveland.

Many of us, or our ancestors, entered America as poor émigrés with not much more than our clothed bodies. This statue has a young woman carrying a baby, and holding a child by the other arm. Friday it was installed on MLK Jr. Dr. (Liberty Blvd.). On 3 June there will be a Mass at St. Paul (Croat) and later a dedication ceremony. It will be the first portion of the Croat Cultural Garden. But, to-day is Mother's Day. And to-day it was available for a visit.

Turkalj came from the old country to work with Ivan Meštrović at Notre Dame. Later he came to Cleveland. Turkaly, 2007†, told a local reporter in 2001 the sculpture "embodies the sacrifice and hardship so many immigrants experienced when they first came to the New World. They were often penniless, not understanding the English language, and initially fearful that immigration officials might send them back home." This sculpture has homes in Toronto, Buenos Aires, Zagreb, and Cleveland Heights. Meštrović sculpted a similar Immigrant Mother for Milwaukee. [see another Croat immigrant mother presentation]
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from a window at the Slovenian National Home on E. 80th, the campanile of their lost church of Saint Lawrence can be seen

To-day, Mother's Day, is a civic commemoration proclaimed for the second Monday in May by Congress and Woodrow Wilson in 1914. For many it has a religious like quality. Few Sunday services to-day did not make a mention of it.
It is much like an homecoming. Many people, who do not often come for church, come to church this day. Saint Lawrence Parish Cleveland, Ohio had a Mass to-day with a priest, Edward Pevec, who came to their parish in 1952. He is now a retired bishop. Many of the parishioners have not gathered together for some time. They had been evicted, and their property confiscated by Richard Lennon. They have had an handful of Masses at the 'Nash' (Slovenian National Home). The auditorium is painted in rose hues, and co-incidently the religious antecedent to Mother's day is Laetare Sunday (4th Sunday of Lent) in which the liturgical color is rose. Previously, servants returned to their home parishes on that day.
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May Crowning. Saint Casimir Cleveland.

Now, they had a May Crowning of a Marian statue at Saint Lawrence. The parish of St. Patrick West Park held a May crowning earlier in the week, 10 May. Patrick's, like Casimir's, has been meeting as a parish exiled from their sanctuary. Casimir's Parish held their weekly service outside, as they have been since 15 November 2009. It was a very Marian observance.