Honoring Mettie

It started with a haircut. Allison Harrison was getting her hair trimmed by Cut-N-Up Hair Salon owner Mary Kinlaw. They were talking about a lemonade stand. But it wasn't a normal summertime business venture for young girls. It was for Mettie. "My heart is so big that these girls want to do that for their little friend," said Kinlaw, the mother of Mary Louise, 10. "I cried all morning thinking about it." Mettie McCuen Livingston, 7, died June 5 after a car wreck on Interstate 95. Some of her friends decided they would open a lemonade stand. The money raised would be used to purchase playground equipment at New Covenant Presbyterian Church to honor Mettie's memory. "I said you need to come up here with all the (foot) traffic," Kinlaw said. So Lainey Baggette, Emma Hodge, Anne Wilder Hartzog, Lucy Camlin Hartzog and Harrison did just that, after Lainey's father Bennie constructed the stand. Susan Hartzog said her family has been close to the Livingstons for about four years -- Susan taught Mettie's sister Lola Grace at St. Matthias Episcopal Church Montessori in Summerton. Anne and Mettie were close, Susan Hartzog said. "She says, 'I miss Mettie.'" Just after Mara Pierce, 13, and her brother Madden, 11, purchased some lemonade, Josh Jordan showed up in support. A fire prevention coordinator with Clarendon County Fire Department and part-time training officer with the Manning Fire Department, Jordan responded to the June 5 wreck that claimed Mettie's life. He told Hartzog that when the playground equipment has been purchased and is ready to be installed, he and several other firefighters wanted to volunteer their time to put it in place. "We just thought it was a good way to give back," he said.