FRANKLIN—An early celebration of motherhood took place Friday morning when seniors gathered at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Franklin. During which, John Wiggins of Suffolk stopped in to present a bouquet of roses to his mother, Mamie Wiggins of Franklin.

“If it weren’t for my parents, especially my mom,” he told everyone present, “God knows where I’d be today.”

Wiggins later shared one of his earliest memories of his mother.

“I remember when I was 4, she would tell me stories from the Bible. That was my first Bible training/teaching, if you will,” he said. “But we also talked about everyday things, such as how to carry yourself and speak with respect. All the things you should learn. At my momma’s knees I learned how to sing and pray.”

And along with giving praise to all the mothers in the room, everyone present also lifted up their voices in song and prayer to their Lord.

Sylvia Riddick was the emcee for the event.

During the program, as Margie Copeland read “The Meanest Mother,” many women in the audience could be heard laughing softly. Not at the speaker, of course, but the subject matter. Written in 1967 by the late Bobbie Pingaro, she tells of how her mother insisted that Bobbie and her siblings eat properly, get plenty of sleep, earn good grades, do chores and stay away from bad characters, to name a few things. All this led to the children growing up to be responsible adults, and for Bobbie in turn to one day be called mean by her own children.

Elder Rosa Hart from New St. Mt. Church on Sycamore Road in Franklin was another speaker. She compared a mother’s love, “which doesn’t give up,” to the roots of tree. Hart, who was born in Boykins and moved to the city in 1946, said one of her earliest memories of being a mother was when she gave birth to her first child, Robert Hart Jr., which was on Dec. 11, 1941. She later had another a son, as well as two daughters.