Aug 5, 2012

Daughters Keep Their Mother’s Hospitality, Creativity Alive at Pendleton ShopBy Charmaine Smith-MilesIndependentMall.com

Pendleton, SC – Kathy Smiley hadn’t planned on staying at The Mercantile, a shop in downtown Pendleton, for very long Thursday.

But when she wandered up to the counter and started talking with the shops’ proprietors, sisters Cindy Higgins and Terri Brooks, a short shopping trip turned into an hour-long visit.

She laughed with Brooks’ 12-year-old son, Ben, as they wove bracelets with parachute cord. And she listened to the latest news from Brooks, who’s recently started radiation to rid her body of a tumor that doctors found in her brain a couple of months ago.

“This is my getaway place,” Smiley said.

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