These words were just shared with me by my dear friend, Leize Willis. Leize called and told me that our wonderful mentor and straight-shooting friend, had passed away. If anyone reading this blog knew Miss Sally Hanckel, you understand. Miss Sally helped both Leize and me through the “dark pearls” I mention in my book, “Bury Me With My Pearls.” #pearlsbook Miss Sally gave me the courage to do the “next right thing.” Leize and I loved her so much: Miss Sally Hanckel empowered us.
A friend of mine commented on my book and said, “I have watched Jane deal with terrible challenges and she has faced them with incredible courage, faith and amazing grace.” I credit Miss Sally Hanckel, my earthly cheerleader for helping me develop courage, faith and grace. I just loved her.
A few years ago, I wrote an article for our newspaper about Miss Sally. Here is an excerpt:
A client-friend of mine sent me a magnet for my fridge. We have a mutual relationship with exchanging quotes. Our last magnet exchange was interesting since the quote is, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller
I really like that one. I feel like I am a daring person but there are those who cross my path who totally amaze me. “Miss Sally” Hanckel is one brave, daring woman in my opinion. Without going into a pile of details, believe me….she is brave. First of all, “Miss Sally” had six children. This is an adventure in itself.
Every time I buy Coburg milk, I think of “Miss Sally” since the Hanckels owned the dairy. Anyone who has a dairy business or visited Charleston enough is probably familiar with Coburg Dairy. The monument to Coburg still stands or spins on Highway 17. It is the infamous cow. At Christmas the traditional cow is replaced with a red and green one along with a cartoon of Coburg Eggnog. Sometimes the cow is more chocolate accompanied with, of course, a carton of chocolate milk. Being that is spins, you know, you just want to ride the thing.
I got to know “Miss Sally” at the Sunday after-the-Episcopal- Church-brunch with the “crowd” sprinkled with a few Yankees. (We really like these Yankees because they don’t like Yankees either.) I mustered the courage to ask “Miss Sally” if she ever rode the cow. I just knew the answer was, ”yes.” “I was close!” She said, “I made it to the platform but never to the top of the cow.” Still, this is really good.
The cow was one landmark in Charleston that attracted the young or young at heart. The other was Shoney’s Big Boy hamburger. Big boy looked like a huge Elvis dressed in checkered “hogwashers” holding up a hamburger. All of us just wanted it sit on that hamburger. We talked about it so much and finally we gave it a try. Well, the cow just had to be next. Just as we had made our plans to ride the cow, Coburg put a barbed-wire fence up to keep us out. Oh, well, so much for the cow ride.
Sitting on the hamburger was easy; the cow was tough. If you made it to the cow, everybody knew about it. You became “kind of” a celebrity. The hamburger was just “so-so.”
The question is: Are you going to sit on the hamburger or ride the cow? Although I never made it to the cow, I still want to ride that thing. I believe this is good. Sad the day when I ride by the cow and don’t want to ride the cow. The desire mooooovvvvved (could not resist).
I hope we all want to try and do different things in our lives. Take a risk and do something out of the norm and for lack of a better way to say it, ride the cow. Remember, “Life is a daring adventure or nothing.”
Thank you Miss Sally for teaching me and many others how to live with courage, faith, and how to make life one daring adventure.
