Hometown Rankin - December 2015 & January 2016

That infamous card has been frosted between birthday cake
layers (in a Ziploc), replicated in 4x8’ plywood sheets, transported
with their mother’s doll in a glass case, shipped UPS, and delivered
by a florist with a funeral wreath. And that’s only a partial list.
The sisters have a collection of treasured photos depicting many
of the deliveries. The original card has a birthday bunny that
Peggy impersonated when she sewed an identical rabbit outfit
and hid in a giant box. When Clara Nell began opening
the box, Peggy, the birthday card rabbit, hopped out.
On Peggy’s 80th birthday, a community-wide birthday
party/reception was held and stories shared about the
rambling card. As usual, the birthday card was part of the
celebration.
The sisters’ merry laughter and light-hearted personalities
are contagious. They give their mother great credit for raising
them and their two brothers in a safe, loving environment
while their carpenter dad made a good living for them. They
now enjoy families of their own. Clara Nell has two children
and Peggy has five. When they gather for family celebrations,
the crowd of spouses, grands, and great grands spill out of the
homes.
The traveling birthday card isn’t their only binding similarity.
They were both Miss Florence High School, salutatorians,
basketball team players, city board members, presidents of the
PTA, Sunday school teachers, and both married husbands from
Richland.
As for the birthday card delivery challenge, this past September,
Clara Nell felt like she had topped the charts when she conscripted a
son-in-law to deliver the card via drone. Peggy nodded in agreement
that the idea would be hard to top. However, she hasn’t given up on
delivering it atop a live elephant.
“Anyone know where to rent an elephant?” she asks. n
60 • December 2015/January 2016