Baby Love

Donna Caruthers Crotchets Warmth and Comfort for Newborns at Baxter Health

Crocheting is a time-honored art form that has enjoyed recent popularity. For Donna Caruthers, crocheting is a love language, a means of communicating through the sharing of artistic talent.

Caruthers first learned to crochet when her husband, Don, asked her for some warm socks to wear on the job. Wanting to learn to knit, Donna sought out a local woman who was giving lessons, only to find out that the course also included the basics of quilting and crocheting. Once learned, the domestic skills came in handy on both a practical and artistic level as well as being a good way to wind down after a day as an elementary school secretary, a career to which Donna devoted 30 working years.

“I just enjoy it, and it’s good therapy for me too,” she said. “I’m retired, and I don’t want to clean the house all the time.”

One of the fringe benefits of a long life is being afforded the opportunity to shepherd succeeding generations, which Donna has done through her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. One of those granddaughters, Amorie Smith, made her grandmother proud by becoming a nurse and coming to work at Baxter Health eight years ago.

Although Mountain Home is about 90 minutes from Donna’s hometown of Alton, Missouri, Smith makes regular trips to visit as the two share a special ministry together. For the past seven years, Donna has been the official beanie maker for the Baxter Health nursery, with Smith transporting the tiny creations as needed.

“For a while, I tried making hats for the cancer patients, you know, who lose their hair,” Donna said. “That made me so sad all the time, but this is always uplifting. Everybody’s always happy with a new baby. I like doing it because I’m giving them away to people who really need them. It blesses a lot of people, myself included.”

Donna said it takes about two hours to crochet one of the tiny stocking caps from start to finish, and while she’s the only one producing them, she’s prodigious enough to churn out a surprising number of them in time for Amorie’s regular cap run.

“I started out doing 25 a month, and that just wasn’t enough,” Donna said. “I’ve got up to where I’ve done 100 a month for the past couple of years.

“When things started picking up a little, ladies Bible groups and different clubs wanted to help. They’d donate yarn, and so when I got the supplies, naturally, I crocheted more.”

Donna’s productivity even outstripped the nursery’s storage capabilities, which prompts Amorie to make the trip as needed. She said even though she doesn’t work in labor and delivery — she’s assigned to the emergency department — she gets a great sense of pride in seeing the little caps on patients and knowing where they came from.

“I just enjoy seeing that,” Amorie said. “In the emergency department, we actually keep a stock of her hats down there as well for any sick newborns who come in.

“I know how much (Donna) enjoys making hats. She’s always made things, all kinds of things besides baby hats, and she is very much a gift giver.”

Amorie tried her hand at crocheting to help shoulder some of the load but said she quickly discovered she didn’t have the patience for the craft. However, her daughter, 7-year-old Kennedy, has gravitated to it under Donna’s expert tutelage and may one day chip in with some hats of her own.

In the meantime, Donna is content to contribute at her own considerable pace for as long as there’s a need.

“I just make ’em when I want to,” she said. “Even when they told me they’d run out of storage space, I just decided I was going to go ahead and make them and keep them here at home. Then Amorie can just take them as they need them at the hospital. I hope the families that receive one get as much enjoyment out of it as I have.”