Breakfast in bed or brunch out on the town? French toast or waffles? Coffee, mimosa, or both?

These are the kinds of questions many of us have asked our moms on Mother's Day—or have been asked ourselves. These are lovely, generous questions, don’t get me wrong. But if you want to celebrate Mother’s Day in a way that reflects the origins of the holiday and deepens your connection to your mother, you might consider asking some different questions.  

We owe our modern Mother’s Day celebrations to Anna Jarvis. Born in West Virginia in 1864, Anna set out to create a Mother’s Day holiday after the death of her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. Never having married and with no children of her own, Anna was determined to honor her mother’s legacy, which extended past the confines of her own family. 

Ann Maria is believed to have given birth to about a dozen children, but most of them died from diseases like the measles, widespread in the Appalachian area where she........

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