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It all started with wanting to find something to keep herself busy.
“I was sitting here, looking at these four walls, and I thought I need something to do,” said Joan Wynn, as she sat on her bed at the Golden Living Center nursing home in Rome.
Wynn not only found something to do, she found something that would help her fellow residents.
She spends her days crocheting various items that she sells in the lobby of Golden Living. On any given day, anyone can walk in the center’s front door, look to the right and see Wynn sitting in a chair, her crochet hook winking in the light as she creates her wares. At her feet, a table sits, filled with crocheted bookmarks, crosses, angels, hats, blankets and baby booties.
Wynn puts the money she makes in an account which she then draws from to take long-term residents of the center to dinner. She also buys Christmas gifts, she said, plus she will sometimes bring everyone doughnuts or buy pizza.
“Well, one year, I made shawls for everyone for Christmas,” she said, displaying one made from a soft orange wool that glowed in the sunlight. “Sometimes I take them shopping, too, because everyone can use a little treat.”
When she first moved to Golden Living, Wynn said, she was really sick.
“I couldn’t even walk,” she said. “But once I got better, I knew my memory kept me from living on my own, and I really wanted to do something for the residents here. It is good for them to get out and enjoy themselves, so I thought the dinners or the shopping trips would be nice.”
Her space is filled with colorful examples of her handiwork. Angels hang over her bed, crosses hang on the wall by her window, and the foot of her bed is covered with several folded blankets she just finished.
Right by her bed is a chest filled with wool yarn.
“I buy at least $30 worth of yarn every time I go,” she said. “This time it’s about $80 worth. I try to get pretty colors and get colors others will like.”
Buying yarn and materials so she can make more items is the only way she uses the money for herself. Her one-woman operation runs pretty smoothly because she keeps a backstock of all her items.
Her items will also always be unique, she said.
“I taught myself to crochet,” she said. “Under a tobacco table with a crochet hook and a piece of old twine used to wrap the tobacco.”
The tobacco table is where workers would lay out tobacco to dry when she was an 8-year-old in Dublin, Georgia. A loose piece of the twine used for tying together the leaves helped her discover her natural gift for crocheting.
“I grew up in the country,” she said. “That twine wasn’t much, but it was enough. I loved crocheting.”
Her love of crochet continued as she grew up and moved on. When she lived in Savannah, she found another love, she said.
“Riding motorcycles,” she said. “I loved that, too. There wasn’t much to do, so we rode motorcycles around.”
Wynn was able to relive her motorcycle days when a volunteer at the Golden Living Center, Steve Manning, took her on a ride.
“I’m 78, so I don’t think anyone thought I’d do it, but I did,” she said, laughing at the memory. “And he told me that he could tell I knew what I was doing. If that motorcycle leans, you’ve got to lean with it.”
Manning helps with the dinner trips, she explained.
“He loads the wheelchairs for us and goes on the dinners with us to help,” she said.
The woman who said she feels like she is “called to help people,” has even made a name for herself.
“People call me the Crochet Lady,” she said, smiling. “I went to vote the last time and all the people manning the polls called out, ‘Hey, the Crochet Lady.’”
If anyone is interested in purchasing some of Wynn’s items, they can go to Golden Living Center, 1345 Redmond Circle. The table in the front lobby is filled from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Source: Rome News
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