I just picked some tomatoes this week,

I think that’s why she’s on my mind.

She loved Florida tomatoes, especially from Ruskin.

I called her my Smokin’ Grandma.

Not like my cousins, who called her Mam-maw.

She wasn’t hot….okay, maybe she was hot to Grandpa,

But to me, she was just Grandma.

In her youth, she had flowing red hair,

a long neck, and chiseled cheekbones.

As she aged, her hair turned to salt and pepper,

and she wore it in two braids, wrapped around her head.

I remember her always wearing shirt dresses,

the ones with an a-line skirt, a belt,

and the top bloused and buttoned.

She even wore a floppy hat when she gardened.

Married at 16, and I suppose a shotgun might have been involved,

She was faithful to just one man her whole life long.

She passed away on Christmas Day, two decades ago.

But she lives on in my memories.