PARKERSBURG - Loving their children and being thankful for them was what two Mid-Ohio Valley mothers gave as their advice for other mothers on this Mother's Day.
Viola Mollendick, originally from St. Marys, was the mother to three sons born after World War II.
Her husband was a minister with the Union Mission. During their service at the Union Mission in Pleasants County she was like a mother to many more children.
"I raised the boys with the other children at the mission," she said. "I think when we went there, there were 19 children."
Mollendick said they began work at the mission in 1947 and they stayed there until 1964. She said she loved all the children, hers and the children who came to them at the mission. While she said she had no advice from mothers in her family in dealing with a large group of children, she said they were helpful.
During the years at the mission she said there were a number of camping trips with all the children.
"We would go camping at Tomlinson Run near Chester - that was a good experience," she said. "My mother-in-law would go with us and help and the staff would go also. We had lots of fun."
Swimming in the nearby lake and cooking and eating meals outdoors were among the memories.
Mollendick said her two grandchildren do not live nearby, but they both work for the U.S. government.
"One lives in Korea, teaching school for the U.S. Department of Defense, the other is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines," she said.
Mollendick said she had two pieces of advice for mothers today.
"Just enjoy your children," she said. "Spend time with them."
Ruth Duggan, 94, of Parkersburg, came to the area in 1957 with her husband who was a chemical engineer at DuPont. For a time she worked at DuPont in New Jersey as a receptionist from the days of WWII while her husband was in the U.S. Navy. She said she has lived most of her life in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
For 11 years Duggan worked at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.
"When I worked there they had only 104 students when it was where the library is now and I worked in the business office and then the library where they are now. That college has grown."
Duggan still has ties to the school, a daughter-in-law graduated with a nursing degree and a granddaughter teaches nursing there.
Duggan, originally from New Jersey, said she had two boys and two girls.
"They were lovely children," she said. "Kathy was born in 1948, and Chuck was four years later and then Richard four years later and Barbara, two years later - she's our West Virginia girl."
Two live out of state and two live nearby. Duggan said her children made her life.
"I couldn't live this life if I didn't have my children, I know," she said.
In addition to her children, Duggan has a large brood of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Duggan said she had one piece of advice for the mothers in her family and others.
"Just live a good clean life and things will work out alright for you. You have to have a strong religion I think to make it," she said. "I'm just thankful for my children and I say I'm a lucky lady."
