MOTHER'S DAY IS SUNDAY, MAY 9TH.

MOTHER'S DAY IS SUNDAY, MAY 9TH.

Mother's Day is older than most seniors. It was 107 years ago that President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation making the second Sunday in May “a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” The first official U.S. Mother's Day was May 9, 1914. Today, Mother's Day is celebrated around the world and is the third most celebrated U.S. holiday behind Christmas and Thanksgiving.

As Seniors, this Mother's Day is particularly poignant, we are the survivors of a global pandemic that claimed the lives of over 5 million lives worldwide and 577,378 lives in the United States. Here at home Covid-19 claimed the lives of 5,555 in Washington and 1,519 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in King County. I call us the survivors because about 60% of King County Seniors are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 which means we are no longer sitting ducks.

Sometimes people with the best of intentions can give us so many numbers and percentages they cause our minds to spin. So lets try to break it down. The records show 80% of all deaths were seniors over 65. That means 8 out of 10 of the 1,519 total who died in King County were UNVACINATED SENIORS. In a few months we lost 1,215 Seniors. But our churches, our senior centers and our State and local government pulled together to save the seniors. They created special age limits and they brought the vaccines to us by holding vaccine clinics in our churches and neighborhoods. Here is the take home thought from this column, if the 1,215 who passed away could have been vaccinated against Covid-19 they would be alive with us today.

So Seniors celebrate this Mother's Day with your loved ones. You have spent a year in near isolation, you and your loved ones have received your vaccinations, and you have survived a worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Congratulations and Happy Mother's Day.

And remember, you read it in The Facts Newspaper.