95-year-old interrupts mask making by surviving COVID-19
MiriamLooker once tested parachutes at WilburWright Field duringWWII.
When the COVIDMARYSVILLE—
19 pandemic first struck Ohio, Miriam Looker’s top concern was keeping her children safe.
It’s a feeling that doesn’t go away just because your children are grown, the mother of nine said.
So when her youngest stepson, a family physician, said he couldn’t find face masks for his patients to wear during their appointments, the 95-year-old quiltmaker fromMarysville, Ohio, knewshe had to help. And, luckily, she knew how.
She had the cotton fabric. She had a sewing machine. A Millersport manufacturer sold the elastic she needed for ear loops and therewere plenty of instructions available online.
“I thought, ‘Well, that’s something I can do, and it’s helpful.’ So I did it,” Looker said during a recent video call with The Dispatch. “When we’re in quarantine, what you can do is limited. So Imight as well make masks.”
About 3,000 masks later, Looker hasn’t stopped — not even after a bout with COVID-19 in November.
Andshe’sproudto sayher stepson hasn’t contracted the virus.
In the spring, when reusable maskswere hard to come by, Dr. Joe Linscottwho has a practice in Marysville, distributed Looker’s masks to all his patients.
NowLooker has made somany masks that they’re protecting people throughout the city. With the help ofWalnut Crossing, the senior-living community where she lives, donations have helped schools, her church, hospice centers and fellowresidents, among others.
Looker has cut the fabric for all 3,000 masks and sewn about 1,700 of them. She tries to make 10 a day, with each one taking about 15 minutes, she said.
She recruited friends to help, including 89-year-old Joann Shroyer, who says she sewed most of the other 1,300.
Her Dayton roots
Whenit comestomask-making, Linscott, 57, compared Looker to Rosie the Riveter, the iconic character representing women who took on factory jobs during World War II.
After a summer training stint at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, she found
herself in Dayton at what was then calledWright Field— today’s
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base — testing parachutes for the army.
Testerswould watch the troopers jump, recordtheirhangtime, then inspect parachutes for damage.
“She’s just like Rosie the Riveter from WWII,” Linscott said. “Shewent frommaking quilts to making masks. She changed her assembly line overnight. Early on, there were no masks. It was hard to get them. She stepped up. She gave us bags at a time, sometimes 200 a week.”
When asked about the comparison, Looker leaned back in her chair and laughed.
“It kind of fits,” she said, smiling.
While in Dayton, Looker met her first husband, Delbert Ford, a paratrooper trainer. At war’s end they moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, where they raised four children. Eventually, at age 60, Looker earned a two-year degree in computer science at Edison Junior College — now Florida SouthWestern State College — in Fort Myers. She hasn’t ruled out finishing a four-year degree. “I’m thinkingabout it,” she said. Looker said recent studies suggesting homemade masks can curb the spread of COVID-19 are encouraging.
“It’s kind of nice to knowyour efforts haven’t been in vain,” she said. “Maybe I did help somebody.”
These days, Looker spends her time quilting, reading mysteries, staying current on politics and playing bingo. She uses her iPad to FaceTime with her children and grandchildren, do puzzles and check email.
Healthy eating
She attributes her longevity to her parents’ own long lives and a secret she shares: “Eat fruit every day.”
Looker knows there are coronavirus skeptics, and peoplewho don’t want towearmasks or think it won’t help.
“Ifwearing amask helps other people, you need to be doing it,” Looker said.
She’s no stranger to donating her work for a worthy cause.
Shenormallyspendshourseach week sewing forMarysville First UnitedMethodist Church’s quilting club. The church supplies the materials and donates the quilts to nursing homes, police, firefighters, veterans, the poor and sick — anybodywho might enjoy one, she said.
Walnut Crossing also has a quilt-making group that meets regularly.
Nowthat people aren’t having asmuch difficulty finding them, Looker said her mask production is slowing downand she will likely
resume quilting.
She had to take a break, though, while recovering from COVID-19.
“I spent a lot of time in my easy chair, withmy eyes resting — some people call those naps,” Looker joked. “I’d sleep all morning, eat lunch, and sleep all afternoon and all night.”
Though her energy level still isn’t 100%, Looker said she is feeling much better.
Thesedays, Looker spends her time quilting, reading mysteries, staying currenton politics and playing bingo.
She uses her iPad to FaceTimewith her children and grandchildren, do puzzles and check email.
‘Greatest Generation’ She attributes her longevity to her parents’ own long lives and a secret she shares: “Eat fruit every day.”
On Dec. 18, she said she had signed up to get her COVID-19vaccinewheneverit becomes available toWalnut Crossing residents, because so much is still unknown about a person’s immunity after infection.
“If my getting it helps someone else, even, it’s worth doing,” Looker said. “They’veworked hard on it. Enough people examined it.
I’m getting it right away.”
Looker said she enjoys being an active member of the community at Walnut Crossing, where she has lived for just over two years.
Walnut Crossing executive director Aimee Doneyhue praised Looker’s efforts.
“Miriam breaks the stereotype of older adults and embodies the strength, devotion and compassion possessed by the residents of Walnut Crossing,” she said in a statement. “She puts the ‘great’ in ‘Greatest Generation.’”