KIND ACTS: GIGGLE BRIDGE CLUB MEMBERS KEEPS SMILING

Cancer hasn't taken away Costella Patterson's laughter.

The 71-year-old retired Cape Girardeau teacher still finds humor in life, particularly when members of her bridge club come calling with food every week as they have since she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last December.

Patterson is a member of the Giggle Bridge Club, a group of retired May Greene School teachers and staff who spend more time socializing than playing cards.

"We have not worn out a deck of cards," said club member and retired teacher Marje Engleman of Cape Girardeau.

The club, founded about 15 years ago, has less than 20 active members.

"The group down at May Greene has been as close as family," said retired teacher Peggy Barks of Scott City.

Barks, her husband, Noel, and Engleman brought dinner to Patterson's Olive Street home Wednesday and stayed for a couple hours. The women chuckled as they recounted some of the amusing classroom actions of past students.

"We have a whole lot of stories," said Patterson, sporting a red turban to cover up her baldness, the result of chemotherapy treatments.

The conversation turns to their own families. "We always talk about grandchildren," said Patterson.

Club members have been bringing dinner -- sometimes roast with potatoes, carrots, bread and salad, and strawberry shortcake -- to Patterson and her husband, Charles, twice a week. They also send get-well cards.

Club members initially supplied meals three times a week, but cut back to twice a week after Patterson observed that she and her husband had more than enough food to eat.

"I told them to cut back to two days a week," said Patterson, who retired in 1985 after teaching at May Greene School for 19 years.

"I was the only black school teacher in the system for a long time," remembered Patterson, who previously taught in the Bell City, Mo., school system for 14 years.

Engleman, who is white, said race never separated the May Greene School teachers. "We were all color blind," she said.

Patterson says the friendships and well wishes of club members have helped keep her going, as have the meals.

"I don't cook much," she said. "I don't do a lot of things. I get too tired."

Her doctor initially predicted she had only a few months to live. Patterson responded by writing her own obituary, just to be prepared.

"My daughter says it is going to be a book," a grinning Patterson said.

She knows the prognosis isn't good. But she refuses to dwell on it. "When I die, that's somebody else's job," she says, insisting her life is in God's hands.

"Prayers have taken us a long way," said Engleman.