Charles Giesting
At mom's funeral, the priest (a tall Franciscan, Fr. ?) told a story about a visit he had made to my mom's house a few weeks before she died. He said he was getting ready to leave, and she asked he liked tomatoes. He said he loved tomatoes. My mother then grabbed a small box from her kitchen cabinets and went to a box of about 20 nice, red and large tomatoes she had setting on the kitchen counter. She then started to closely scrutinize each of the tomatoes in the box for any spots or other imperfections. She found 2-3 tomatoes she didn't think were perfect and she put those in the small box. Father said he was feeling pretty good thinking he was going to get those 2-3 tomatoes in the small box which looked good and would be perfect for him. However, he was most surprised when she didn't give him the small box but instead the large box of perfect tomatoes! When he questioned her about it, she said she had all she needed, and she was sure he could share what he had with others around him. Fr. said that story spoke to the type of giving person my mom was, ..keep only what you need and share everything else with others!