My paternal grandma, the daughter of Italian immigrants who made their way to Pennsylvania shortly after being greeted by the sights and sounds surrounding Ellis Island, did not grow up with a financially privileged lifestyle. Her parents worked hard, but times were tight, and she was a young child during the Great Depression. One day, when grandma was quite young, she found out that her school was sponsoring a food drive. There were students in the school whose families were in very dire straights. The community would rally together to feed them. This troubled my grandma. She didn’t want to think of anyone going without. She went home and told her mother how sad this was, these poor families with no food to eat. She asked if she could bring something to contribute. I imagine my great-grandmother wiping her hands on her apron, maybe turning to wipe a tear from her eye, looking out the window, and speaking in Italian.

“Yes, Anna, you go out to the garden. Dig up some potatoes. Take those.”

So my grandma took potatoes to her class, wanting to help those less fortunate.

At the end of the week, a truck pulled up to grandma’s house. It was someone from the school. They were out delivering food baskets to the families, the poorest ones—those with the greatest need. My great-grandparents’ household was gifted with beans and flour and bread, a few other items, and yes, chosen carefully from a backyard garden by a little girl who saw only what she had instead of what she didn’t have, there were potatoes.

Grandma with her first husband, my grandfather, who died when my dad was young. Grandma was left a widow with three young children. She went on to remarry and bring six more kids into the world.

What I love the most about this story, is the profound yet simple secret that it holds: if you want to have an abundant life, act as if you’ve already got one. If you want to be blessed, realize that you already are. That heart of gratitude, selflessness, and humility never left my grandma. She modeled all of that and more for her nine children and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When she passed away on this day, Valentine’s Day, in 2004, I’m not sure how much money she had in her bank account, but I know she felt, as always, very rich.