TODAY WILL be the busiest non-business day of the year for phone companies. Close to 50 million calls will be made just in Ohio.

Phones will ring. Young voices will please old ears. Sons and daughters will run up their long-distance bills.

Flower shops and garden centers open today will be busy serving last-minute buyers, who will find that the bouquets and plants left for sale have been thoroughly picked over.

Restaurant operators will try to deal with more reservations than are usual for a spring Sunday. Some places will have long waiting lines.

Churches at all points of the compass will hold services dedicated to a traditional theme. Children will rush about, breaking eggs and spilling milk to make breakfasts in bed, complete with fresh blooms pulled from a flower bed in the yard or greenery from a planter in the living room. Husbands will take fancy cards and elegantly wrapped packages from hiding places.

Long drives will be taken in cars. Special movies will be viewed. Songs with secret meanings will ring out and dusty photo albums will be taken from closed drawers.

Memories will be evoked in long conversations about days gone by, about softer, gentler times and places. Events will be recalled from childhoods long since grown into middle age and beyond. Cemeteries will be visited. Tears will be shed. Some will look at a stained glass window, a house now occupied by others, blooming flowers growing from bulbs planted long ago, and see beyond them into faces that have been unseen for too long.

SMILES WILL SHINE like stars, as small arms and smaller hands reach out in hugs.

Wrapping paper will be torn and discarded or folded and placed in drawers. Cards will be exhibited on mantels. Gifts will be shown off, worn and sometimes exchanged.

Mothers will sigh, breathe deeply, look around themselves at all they have and be thankful for who they are.