According to National Day Calendar or National Today, there are nearly 1,500 National Days, National Weeks and National Months that we as Americans celebrate.

I don’t know about you but I have a hard enough time keeping track of birthdays, my anniversary, or even all of the United States Postal Service holidays where mail and the Daily News aren’t delivered, let alone know when to celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, Curmudgeons Day, Hell is Freezing Over Day, National Poop Day, National Potty Dance Day, Lumpy Rug Day, National Ding-A-Ling Day or Take it in the Ear Day.

The internet and our social media feeds are full of ridiculous hashtags boosting corporate marketing and validating niche interests. Forget the dollar or Bitcoin, social media likes and shares are the new worthless currency we trade in.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I feel the need to talk about one holiday that is so very important to me and one that I feel is overshadowed and doesn’t get the recognition or participation that it deserves … that’s Mother’s Day.

Per History.com, Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. In the United States, Mother’s Day 2024 falls on Sunday, May 12. The American incarnation of Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official U.S. holiday in 1914. Jarvis would later denounce the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar.

I have shared before in a previous column about the funny story and photo about my mother giving me beer while seated on her lap in a Biergarten in Germany in 60s. What I didn’t share is what I owe her and how she has shaped me. She is the one that taught me to love from the very beginning. I owe her the greatest debt of gratitude for this gift. She was patient with me as a trying newborn, often sleepless and depleted physically and emotionally. She made great sacrifices to her career, her self-care and her self-interest to care for me and my three sisters.

She was my cornerstone of emotional security. I owe her so much for the person I am, yet she asked for so little. On Sunday, an offering of flowers, cards and other gifts seems to me to fall short for all that she has done for me. The ball is in my court to figure out how to repay her after 59 years of giving selflessly of herself.

As I was writing my column, I searched for Mother’s Day assignments I had photographed and I came across more than 30 photos and stories that I took part in covering. The one that stood out to me was the May 7, 2005, story about Vanessa Menjivar, who gave birth to quadruplets 3 and half years earlier. One of the children was born with cerebral palsy and Menjivar herself has Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a congenital heart problem.

Even battling adversity, Menjivar said “It’s a blessing being a mom to quadruplets. Mother’s Day reminds me of how blessed I am. I didn’t think I could do it.”

I know that I did something right as a dad as my son and his new wife made sure that flowers were delivered to Tracy for Mother’s Day. And he remembered the Imel-male flower giving rules: never deliver them to the house, always have them delivered to work so the co-workers can oooh and aaahh over them and that someone thought she was special.

Sunday should be a special day for everyone. It is time to remember that Mom was always there for you when you needed her and time to make not just one day of the year something really special, but every day.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there. World Whiskey Day is May 20th, I will hoist a drink with mom to celebrate. By the way, National Joe Day was March 27th. If you missed it, you can still buy me a drink next time you see me.

– Daily News General Manager Joe Imel can be reached at (270) 783-3273 or via email at joe.imel@ bgdailynews.com.