“I already worked my share.”<\/p>\n
Neither of them spoke.<\/p>\n
I continued.<\/p>\n
“Last year’s harvest was my contribution.”<\/p>\n
“You decided someone else deserved it.”<\/p>\n
“So this year’s harvest can be yours.”<\/p>\n
My mother-in-law laughed.<\/p>\n
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
I shook my head.<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“What’s ridiculous is expecting me to work for food I’ll never get to enjoy.”<\/p>\n
Adam folded his arms.<\/p>\n
“So you’re really going to sit there while we’re working?”<\/p>\n
“Exactly.”<\/p>\n
“And if the garden doesn’t get planted?”<\/p>\n
“Then it doesn’t.”<\/p>\n
For the first time in eleven years, nobody picked up a shovel.<\/p>\n
My mother-in-law kept waiting for me to give in.<\/p>\n
An hour passed.<\/p>\n
Then two.<\/p>\n
By lunchtime, she had planted exactly three rows herself.<\/p>\n
She was exhausted.<\/p>\n
Jessica arrived just after noon.<\/p>\n
She looked around.<\/p>\n
“Why isn’t anything done?”<\/p>\n
My mother-in-law pointed at me.<\/p>\n
“Ask her.”<\/p>\n
Jessica rolled her eyes.<\/p>\n
“Seriously?”<\/p>\n
I smiled politely.<\/p>\n
“You still have all those jars from last year.”<\/p>\n
“Maybe they can plant the tomatoes too.”<\/p>\n
Her face turned bright red.<\/p>\n
Adam finally walked over.<\/p>\n
“You’re embarrassing Mom.”<\/p>\n
I looked directly at him.<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“She embarrassed herself when she gave away months of my work without even asking.”<\/p>\n
“And you embarrassed our marriage when you told me not to make a big deal out of it.”<\/p>\n
He opened his mouth…<\/p>\n
…then closed it again.<\/p>\n
Because he knew I was right.<\/p>\n
That evening, I packed every gardening tool I had personally purchased into my car.<\/p>\n
The watering hose.<\/p>\n
My gloves.<\/p>\n
My wheelbarrow.<\/p>\n
Even the pressure canner I’d used for preserving vegetables.<\/p>\n
Before leaving, I handed Adam a small notebook.<\/p>\n
Inside were every receipt I’d kept over the years.<\/p>\n
Seeds.<\/p>\n
Equipment.<\/p>\n
Canning supplies.<\/p>\n
Fertilizer.<\/p>\n
Nearly six thousand dollars’ worth.<\/p>\n
“I won’t ask you to pay me back.”<\/p>\n
“But don’t expect me to keep financing a garden that benefits everyone except me.”<\/p>\n
The next season, they tried to manage without me.<\/p>\n
By August, half the vegetables had dried up.<\/p>\n
The weeds were taller than the tomatoes.<\/p>\n
There were barely enough cucumbers to make a dozen jars of pickles.<\/p>\n
That fall, Jessica called.<\/p>\n
“Do you have any extra salsa this year?”<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
“I do.”<\/p>\n
“But every jar is already sitting in my<\/strong> pantry.”<\/p>\n She laughed awkwardly.<\/p>\n “So… none for me?”<\/p>\n I answered calmly.<\/p>\n “You were right.”<\/p>\n “People who need something should appreciate the person who worked for it.”<\/p>\n After a long silence, she quietly said,<\/p>\n “I never thanked you.”<\/p>\n “No.”<\/p>\n “You didn’t.”<\/p>\n The following spring, my mother-in-law invited us back to the garden.<\/p>\n Before anyone handed me a shovel, she looked at me and said,<\/p>\n “If we do this together…”<\/p>\n “…everything we harvest gets divided fairly.”<\/p>\n I smiled.<\/p>\n “Now that’s something worth planting.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “I already worked my share.” Neither of them spoke. I continued. “Last year’s harvest was my contribution.” “You decided someone else deserved it.” “So this year’s harvest can be yours.” My mother-in-law laughed. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous.” I shook my head. “No.” “What’s ridiculous is expecting me to work for food I’ll never get to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7009,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7008\/revisions\/7009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}