The living room of 87-year-old Margery Clark is filled with little fabric faces, each belonging to a doll with a dress and bonnet of its own and each one fashioned from the skills and imagination of a lady who creates them by hand.
In mid-July, each of her dolls will make its way to the waiting arms of a needy child in Guatemala.
For the third consecutive year, Clark has committed her time and effort to create dolls for her church, Toxey Baptist in Choctaw Baptist Association, to be distributed to Guatemalan children during the church’s annual missions trip to the Central American country.
The first year, she created 40 dolls, making another 54 in 2012.
But this year, Clark committed to create 80 dolls to send with four members of her church when they go on their annual trip July 13–20.
Using a nearly century-old sewing machine that her mother used to make her clothes as a child, Clark spends countless hours perfecting the dolls, using pieces of fabric and lace that she has collected over her lifetime and adding distinct facial features to each creation.
“I don’t know how, but each one seems to have a different expression on its face,” she said.
“No two dolls are the same. They are all different and they seem to have their own personalities.”
Clark has been working on the dolls for the missions trip since early January.
Although she has performed the majority of the work herself, this year members of the church helped stuff some of the dolls, and others donated cotton for the project.
The dolls are among thousands that she has created for family members, friends and others through the years. “I don’t really know how many I have made,” she said. “It would be hard to even guess.”
Although they have remained basically the same in size and appearance, Clark’s dolls have changed somewhat over the past three years, partly due to the aging of her hands.
“I used to put hair on all of them,” she explained.
“But that’s pretty hard on my hands, so now I put bonnets on most of them instead.”
This year, in addition to making dolls for Guatemala, Clark will be sending others to a children’s cancer center in Houston, Texas, to help provide a little cheer for those who need it.
Although she admits that her age may push her to slow down one day, she doesn’t intend to stop soon.
“I just can’t sit and do nothing,” she admitted. “I have to be busy, and I can’t imagine not sewing.
“I don’t care who it is — if a child needs a doll, I’ll make it for them,” she added, saying that using her skills to reach the needy is just an outgrowth of her faith and her desire to serve her church.
“I may not be able to go on a missions trip, but this is something I can do,” she said.
“I just believe we are put on earth to do things for others when we can.”
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