The Stacy - Bickings Connection

I live in Cape Girardeau --it is the most small-town, big-town in Southeast Missouri!   Everyone knows someone and it is all intertwined.  For instance, I have a Stacy-Bickings connection which has lasted over 30 years and we are a major part of each other's life.   When I started work at the University, Bev Hickam was my secretary in the Alumni Office and Debbie Siemers Bickings was her best friend.   Debbie wanted to go to beauty school and I said that I would pay her to come to my house twice a week and do my hair!  That helped her and it helped me!    That was over 30 years ago.   It still happens.

We sit before the mirror and we pour out our hearts to each other.   We are a part of each other's lives in good times and bad times.   Justin, her son, used to come with her in the summers and he would sit in front of the television while his mother did my hair.   Last year, at the cemetery in Charleston, when my brother, Jim was buried, Justin presented the flag to me.  And I dissolved in tears at the sight of this little boy, all grown up in uniform, who said, "Mrs. Stacy, I begged them to let me give you the flag today!"

Today, Debbie came with her grandson, Mason, who watched television like his uncle.  The Stacy-Bickings connection lives on!