The Healing Journey

August 11, 2026

“There ain’t nothing better in life than true love and a homegrown tomato.”
— Old saying

For most of his young life Mario hated tomatoes. What Italian hates tomatoes? Who doesn’t love a good Bolognese sauce or a tomato salad with burrata cheese or sun dried tomatoes with sautéed chicken. Yes, he was a discredit to his people. To make matters worse, his grandfather and father spent most of their summer months growing tomatoes. That’s all they talked about when they talked. The first question on their lips was “How’s the tomato garden,” and then they proceeded through a litany of successes and failures.

Most summers, they had more tomatoes than they knew what to do with, so they gave them to family members and friends and just about anyone who would take them. Everyone wanted some.

But that was long ago. Now, they were gone. No more tomato talk. Instead, his wife bought organic cherry tomatoes at Whole Foods. His father, wherever he was, was looking down and laughing … or smirking.

All that changed on the Saturday afternoon Mario found himself wandering through the garden center at Home Depot and came upon the tomato plants. So many different varieties that he didn’t know what to make of them.

As a kid he never bothered to learn the names, but he was overcome by a desire to buy a few plants — which he did. Yes, he was certain his father was smirking because he would have never paid $5 for a plant. He grew them from seed, which sprouted during the winter in the attic window.

Mario went home, and even though he really didn’t know what he was doing, he put four plants in pots on the deck. And his fascination increased from then on. Every day he checked on their progress. He watered, he fertilized, he mulched, he chased away the chipmunks and he had the greatest satisfaction when tomatoes appeared. Bright red cherry and grape tomatoes.

Now, his wife was the one smirking, but Mario didn’t care. He was so ecstatic, he couldn’t resist picking them off the plants and eating them, and he realized how foolish he had been over the years. All he could say was “Thanks, Dad, these are great!”
©J Pisani

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