88-year-old Saanich woman knits more than 200 toques for charity
“I call myself the Chicken Lady!” Daphne beams before breaking into infectious laughter.
Despite there being a painting of chickens hanging beside her front door (“Every time I look at it I feel happy!”), despite one of the roosters being named after her late husband Mike (“I just love chickens!”), this is not a story about chickens.
This is a story that begins during the Second World War, in northern England, when young Daphne was waiting in her family’s underground air-raid shelter.
“I can remember the big bomber planes going over,” Daphne recalls. “Because there was the boom, boom, boom.”
Which led to the loudest boom of all.
“Our house was bombed,” Daphne says. “But I had a very happy family [even though] we didn’t have a lot.”
But what Daphne did have was the ability to knit and an unwavering propensity for positivity.
“I was a bit of a goody-goody at school,” Daphne admits with a laugh.
Now — according to her nephew Tony — she’s always busy-busy with her knitting.
“I asked, ‘Who are these for Daph?’” Tony recalls. “And she said, ‘Oh, I’m knitting a few toques for some people who might need them.”
It turns out Daphne was knitting for the clients at Our Place Society, creating a new hat every day.
“The speed in which she makes them is beyond me,” Tony laughs with amazement, before revealing that Daphne has donated more than 200 toques to some of the capital’s most vulnerable people. “It’s staggering!”
“I hope [my knitting] gives somebody a bit of warmth and pleasure,” Daphne smiles.
After surviving a war, caring for chickens, and living 88 years, Daphne says the best way to knit a happy life for yourself is to simply spread kindness to others.
It’s a simple as that? I ask.
“Yes!” Daphne bursts out laughing. “[But] I’m a simple person!”
Simply wonderful, it seems.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
'I was scared': Ontario man's car repossessed after missing two repair loan payments
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.