There’s an old tombstone outside St Annes Church in the Sydney suburb of Ryde, dedicated to the memory of Maria Ann Smith. In the early days of Sydney she was the midwife for the area and was commonly known as Granny Smith. One day she bought a barrel of crab apples but found them useless. So she dumped them by a creek. Some time later she noticed that a tree had started to grow from the remains, and she transplanted it. Eventually it produced its first crop of green apples that were quite unlike any others. They became very popular throughout the district and everyone called them Granny Smith’s apples. Now they are world famous.
As for Granny Smith herself, she explained it by saying, “Now isn’t that just like God. He takes the stuff we think is useless and uses it to create something new.” He does it with people too.