PHOENIX – Bobbie Gorsline was searching for Valentine’s Day greeting playing cards, sorting by way of the small choice, looking for simply the correct one.
She picked up a heart-shaped card printed with flowers and two bluebirds, adorned with an actual purple feather, that mentioned, “Valentine Greetings to My Sister.”
It was a uncommon discover in 1941, a time earlier than huge greeting card firms, which at the moment produce playing cards for sisters, sisters-in-law, stepsisters, half-sisters, huge sisters, little sisters, and associates who look like sisters.
The verse inside completely described Bobbie, who was 21 on the time, and her sister, Jean Coppins, 23, who lived in what was then East Detroit, Michigan. They’d all the time been shut.
Bobbie had by no means seen a card like this one. She purchased it and on Valentine’s Day, she gave it to Jean.
Jean was so delighted that she saved it. It was the right card, so excellent that the following 12 months, on Valentine’s Day, she gave it again to Bobbie.
Bobbie hung onto the card. The 12 months after, she despatched it to Jean.
It was the start of a convention that will endure for 71 years.
And it wouldn’t finish there.
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Jean was the second of seven kids. Bobbie was the third. They grew up in a tiny home with no electrical energy or plumbing. Their brother, Chuck, the one boy, hauled water from a neighbor’s properly on the far finish of the road.
The ladies referred to as their mom an angel. Their father was something however. He was a taxi driver who spent a whole lot of time within the neighborhood bar. At residence, he barked orders from his recliner.
The children regarded out for each other, all seven of them, however Bobbie and Jean had been particularly shut.
Jean married James Coppins in 1939. Three years later, Bobbie married Everett Snider.
Whereas Everett was away within the Military, she lived with Jean and James.
When Bobbie had her first baby, a lady, she named her Jean. Sandy got here subsequent, adopted by Gary and Dale.
Jean had six kids: Jimmy, John, Judy, Janet, Jerry and Joyce.
Their kids grew up collectively.
Jean’s daughter, Judy, remembers going to Bobbie’s home at some point, her mother and father bringing a half-gallon of ice cream frozen so stable that their spoons bent after they tried to dish it up. Her dad lower it into slices with a hacksaw.
In 1953, Bobbie and her household moved to Phoenix. The sisters visited frequently and saved in contact by cellphone and letters. Years later, when Jean after which Bobbie had been widowed, their visits generally stretched to a month at a time.
Sandy and Judy had been 6 after they had been cut up up. After Judy graduated from highschool, she and a buddy took a Greyhound bus to Phoenix to go to Sandy. The cousins saved in contact, identical to their moms, getting collectively for weddings and different household occasions and visiting after they might.
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Over all these years, Bobbie and Jean despatched the Valentine card forwards and backwards, by no means lacking a 12 months.
The verse inside mentioned, “Keep in mind once we two had been children —
And all of the scraps we had?
Keep in mind all the great instances, too,
That used to make us glad?
Right here’s one thing else that I recall —
I believed a whole lot of you!
Don’t you neglect that, both,
‘trigger, doggone it, I nonetheless do!”
The sisters generally made notations inside the cardboard. Different instances, they wrote on notepaper and enclosed it within the envelope.
Within the backside left nook, Jean did the mathematics one 12 months: 2004 minus 1941 equals 63. She wrote, “Nonetheless going robust. It’s seen a whole lot of miles however when it will get to you, I do know it’ll deliver smiles.”
On a sheet of notepaper printed with a ladybug and watering can dated Feb. 10, 2006, Jean wrote, “Love you extra much more every year. I by no means noticed a greater Valentine.”
“2008! Certain obtained our cash out of this card and it’s nonetheless nice!” Jean wrote within the higher left nook.
Close to the highest of the cardboard, Bobbie wrote, “70 years and I nonetheless love you extra.”
In 2011, Bobbie wrote on the again of a flowered sheet of notepaper, “That is going to disintegrate one in all these years!” Beneath that, the following 12 months, Jean wrote, “I like you better of anyone!”
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On her yard patio in Phoenix, Bobbie’s daughter, Sandy Mettille, flipped by way of the pages of an album, mentioning photos of her mom and aunt.
Though they had been shut, Jean and Bobbie weren’t all that a lot alike.
“Everybody referred to as Aunt Jean a saint as a result of she by no means, by no means obtained mad,” Sandy mentioned. Her mother, Bobbie, had a mood.
Bobbie collected angels. Jean collected clowns.
Jean liked the Detroit Crimson Wings and Detroit Tigers. Bobbie wasn’t a lot focused on sports activities, although she’d listen when the Crimson Wings performed the Arizona Coyotes. She’d tease Jean if the Coyotes beat the Crimson Wings.
They each liked to play playing cards and crochet, making afghans, sweaters and bonnets for his or her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
They had been good moms, dedicated to their kids and one another’s.
“They confirmed us unconditional love,” Sandy mentioned.
From Destin, Florida, Jean’s daughter, Judy Neisch, mentioned the sisters informed one another all the pieces. They saved no secrets and techniques.
And every time they had been collectively, they might giggle like they had been ladies. It was contagious, Judy mentioned. In eating places, even diners at different tables would snort.
“They had been only a hoot,” Judy mentioned, “the 2 of them collectively.”
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In 2007, Bobbie was identified with Alzheimer’s illness and by 2012, she had moved right into a reminiscence care residence.
That 12 months, the cardboard was delivered to Sandy’s home. She took it to her mother. Bobbie didn’t bear in mind all the pieces or everybody, however she acknowledged her kids.
And she or he remembered the cardboard.
Bobbie remembered her sister, too. After they talked over video calls, Bobbie would attain out and contact Jean’s face on the display screen.
Sandy took the cardboard residence together with her, frightened it might get misplaced or unintentionally thrown out. She had it nonetheless when Roberta Ann “Bobbie” Snider died on Nov. 21, 2012, on the age of 92.
Sandy and her siblings picked out an urn with an angel wrapped round it. Sandy thought it was lovely and texted an image of it to her cousins.
Earlier than burying her mom on the Nationwide Memorial Cemetery of Arizona together with her father, who had died in 2011, Sandy lower a sliver from the correct facet of the Valentine’s Day card and slipped it contained in the urn.
Jean Evelyn Coppins died two months later, on Jan. 16, 2013. She was 94. Her kids discovered the identical urn Bobbie had been buried in, the one with the angel on it, for his or her mother. Judy thought she would have favored that.
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In 2013, with Valentine’s Day approaching, Sandy took the cardboard out of a file folder the place she’d put it for safekeeping. She slid it out of the envelope, final addressed in Jean’s script.
The cardboard was 72 years outdated and fragile. The white paper had yellowed, however the colours of the flowers and birds hadn’t light. The purple feather, fitted right into a slit on the entrance, was nonetheless vibrant.
Sandy ran her fingers over it.
It had been so necessary to the sisters. A connection between them. Even after they had been miles aside.
Sandy picked up the cellphone and referred to as Judy. She informed her cousin that she was taking a look at their moms’ card.
“Why don’t we preserve sending it?” Sandy requested.
Judy did not hesitate. After all, they need to.“I used to be honored to do this,” Judy mentioned.
That Valentine’s Day, the cardboard, postmarked in Phoenix, arrived within the mail in Destin, Florida, the place Judy spends winters.
When Judy obtained the cardboard residence to Michigan, she lower a slim strip from the underside of the cardboard and tucked it inside her mom’s urn. Jean was buried in the identical grave together with her husband, who died in 1983.
The Valentine’s Day card, a bit of it at the very least, could be with the sisters all the time.
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In February, Sandy packed the cardboard rigorously in a padded envelope, inserting cardboard to stop it from bending. She despatched it from Phoenix on Feb. 5, paying additional for a monitoring quantity so she might monitor its progress.
It arrived in Destin, Florida, at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 9. Sandy knew it earlier than Judy and referred to as to inform her.
Judy picked it up on the desk of the excessive rise the place she and her husband, Richard, have stayed for 19 years. She teared up as she opened it.
Sandy estimates the cardboard has traveled greater than 130,000 miles, between Arizona and Michigan and Arizona and Florida. She marvels that it has by no means gone astray.
Judy normally slaps a few stamps on it and places it within the mailbox.
“Subsequent 12 months, will you please ship it with a monitoring label?” Sandy requested when she referred to as. Judy promised she would.
Sandy was relieved. It is a lot greater than a card.
It is a reminder, well timed for Valentine’s Day, Sandy mentioned. Youngsters be taught to nurture relationships from their households. Individuals can disagree and nonetheless love each other.
“Unconditional love is probably the most valuable present we may give or be given, and it’s a connection to all the time respect and treasure,” Sandy mentioned. “That is the present our mothers gave us.”
Their present to their moms is to proceed that custom in a whole lot of methods: Jean’s deviled eggs at Easter, Bobbie’s brown sugar tarts, household gatherings at holidays, saying, “I like you extra.” And an outdated, heart-shaped card.
“Keep in mind once we two had been children —
And all of the scraps we had?
Keep in mind all the great instances, too,
That used to make us glad?”
This 12 months marks 80 years the cardboard has been mailed forwards and backwards.
“Perhaps we are able to make it to 100 if Sandy and I dwell lengthy sufficient,” Judy mentioned. The cousins are 74.
After that, maybe their youthful sisters will preserve it going or the grandchildren or great-grandchildren.
Sandy thinks the sisters could be thrilled to know concerning the card.
“That card was so necessary to the 2 of them,” Sandy mentioned.
And a 12 months from now, the cardboard will discover its method again to Sandy, a convention that endures for the love of their moms.
“Right here’s one thing else that I recall –
I believed a whole lot of you!
Don’t you neglect that, both,
‘trigger, doggone it, I nonetheless do!”
Comply with reporter Karina Bland on Twitter @KarinaBland
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