Late at night, snuggled under blankets, Claudine Crockwell often thought of the homeless.

The 81-year-old was warm and realised that others weren’t so lucky.

Determined to do something, she put her knitting needles to work making blankets for the needy.

“Three weeks ago my niece Jané Crockwell got a car,” she said. “Now I give her a knitted blanket in the morning and she finds someone to give it to in town on her way to work.”

The two of them have given away five blankets so far, and Mrs Crockwell has several more ready to go.

“They thank you when they get a blanket, she said. “They are very grateful.”

She got hooked on knitting 11 years ago after her husband Custerfield Crockwell died.

“It helps me relax,” she said.

Over the years she’s given away much of her handiwork. “I always find someone who needs it. I’ve given blankets to elderly people at [St Luke’s Church in St David’s] or people in hospital.

“I just like to help other people. You have to be kind.”

Her aunt Louise Gibbons taught her to knit when she was 12. The skill didn’t come easily.

“At first I just couldn’t get it, but I stayed at it,” she said.

For a long time she preferred stitching, which she learnt as a teenager at the former Girls Institute of Arts and Crafts in Hamilton.

Today, her eyes aren’t as sharp. Three years ago she almost lost her vision.

“I went to the eye doctor because I broke the frame on my glasses,” she said. “She looked at my eyes and said I had a hole at the back of my left eye. I have no idea how you get a hole in the back of your eye, but she said I would have been blind within a year. I didn’t notice anything at the time.”

Surgery in Boston helped.

“Now my vision is a lot better,” she said. “God is good. Without him, who would I turn to?”

“I could knit all day long, sometimes,” she said. “I just love it. My daughters and grandchildren often ask me to knit hats or scarves for them in particular colours.”

She grew up in Bailey’s Bay, Hamilton Parish. Her father, Stuart Outerbridge, was a fisherman and her mother, Hilda, was a homemaker.

She met her husband, Custerfield, when she was 20 years old and working at Palmetto Bay Hotel.

“I was working in the pantry making salads, coffee and sandwiches,” she said. “I really enjoyed that. One day there was a bus strike and my girlfriend and I had to call a taxi.”

Mr Crockwell was the taxi driver who picked them up.

“After that whenever we called a taxi it always seemed to be him that came to get us,” said Mrs Crockwell. “We started dating after two or three months of knowing one another.”

They were married in April 1956 and had four daughters, Glenda, Deborah, Andrea and Doreen, who has since died. Mr Crockwell became a policeman, rising to the rank of inspector.

“He was an excellent husband and father,” said Mrs Crockwell.

They moved to St David’s 30 years ago.

“I have lovely neighbours,” she said. “Everyone calls me Nana Crockwell. I’m probably the oldest person in the neighbourhood now. The children are the world. Sometimes you see them doing wrong, but you have to stop them. I used to give the neighbourhood children candy when they were around here playing.

“They would come to the door for candy all the time. Now they are grown up and some have married and moved out.”

When she’s not knitting she enjoys activities with St David’s seniors’ group, the Island Glee Club. “I am a people person,” she said. “I go on the ferry and go for a ride and meet people. Sometimes my children say, ‘Mama, who is that you’re talking to?’ I say, ‘I don’t know who it is I just like to talk to people.’

“We have to be kind to people,” she said. “We have to say kind words and forgive.”

Her plan is to continue knitting for others, as long as she can.

She has seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

• Lifestyle profiles senior citizens in the community every Tuesday. To suggest an outstanding senior contact Jessie Moniz Hardy: 278-0150 or jmhardy@royalgazette.com. Have on hand the senior’s full name, contact details and the reason you are suggesting them