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'She's Always Been A Helper:' 93-Year-Old Woman In Braddock Making Masks For Family Members

BRADDOCK (KDKA) -- At 93-years-young, Dorothy Culligan has some free time on her hands.

"Because if I'm not doing anything worthwhile I'm sleeping," she said in her kitchen.

Even more now with the stay at home orders from the governor.

"And I was thinking, being that I can't really do nothing, I should go and start making some masks," Culligan said.

So she decided to be a helper during this pandemic and thought what would be better than to those masks for her family. She's made some for her grandchildren and great-grandson.

"She's always been a helper," said her daughter-in-law Sandy.

"Proud to do this and to help somebody else," Dorothy said.

One of the grandchildren is an operating room nurse in Las Vegas and the other lives in the epicenter of COVID-19 in New York City.

"So they're going to them and the great grandson," Dorothy said.

Their mother Sandy brought up some old shirts from when her husband Kevin served on the north Braddock volunteer fire department to make the masks.

He spend years serving and protecting his community.

"He would be like the first one to whenever there was a fire," Dorothy said.

By hand and with some help from the sewing machine, they took some of the patches and made them part of the masks which will be sent as a surprise to Dorothy's two grandchildren and their families.

"I just think that in his heart these masks for my children and my grandson and for whoever she continues to make them for, his legacy will live on. He was always a helper," Sandy said.

Kevin passed away 2 years ago leaving behind his mother, wife, 2 children and grandchild.

"I feel him around us always. He always protected us," Sandy said as she remembered her husband.

So the masks may just be cloth, but the hope for Dorothy and sandy is these have more protection from a power greater than anything sewn together.

"I was always so proud of him," Dorothy said.

Dorothy said if her hands hold up she will try to make more masks for other people.

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