I'm an antique

We were in a small town store when a lady came with tomatoes.  We spoke and she sat in a chair was talking  to the store owner.  When she heard we were antique dealers, she ask Mark if he liked antiques.  When Mark told her yes, she said, "I'm an antique,   I'm  90 years old".

 I sat down and talked to her while Mark paid our bill.  She  told me that she has worked since she was 12 years old  and does not plan to stop,  When  people tell her to stop working, she tells them that if they do not want to see her working,  to turn around or close their eyes.

 The tomatoes that she brought to share were from her garden. She told me that her landlord did not want her to have a garden, so she "spaded" just a little bit for her garden.  She wanted to hoes up the whole east side of the yard.  She said that she did not know what she would do without her garden.  The last thing that she told me was that if she died while working in her garden, she would die a happy women.

I could not help but think of my mother-in-law.  She was a hard working women who loved her garden.  I believe if she had lived to be 90, she would have said the same thing.