Acts of kindness
Shirley Calabria, 85, of Eighty Four, recently received a gift card from the Twilight Wish Foundation, Washington Chapter, to help pay for her prescription medications. She is shown with her son and daughter-in-law, Glenn and Tommi Calabria, during a party held in her honor.
Cherie Dixon, director of the Twilight Wish Foundation, Washington Chapter, presents Shirley Calabria of Eighty Four with a certificate during a party held in her honor.
Shirley Calabria has spent most of her 85 years doing good deeds for others.
But earlier this month, Shirley was on the receiving end of an act of kindness when the Twilight Wish Foundation, Washington Chapter, presented her with a Giant Eagle gift card to assist with co-pays on her prescription medications.
It was difficult, she said, to accept the monetary gift, “but yet it was nice.”
“Just to have everybody around me that day was nice,” Shirley said. “The cake and the flowers … I love flowers, and the arrangement was beautiful. It was a joy just being around people.”
Shirley and her husband, Donald, were quite active in the community before Donald passed away in 2009 at the age of 80.
The couple spent many years conducting Bible study at the Mel Blount Youth Home, and in addition to raising their own five children, they fostered 14 children, all of whom came into the Calabria’s Eighty Four home in Nottingham Township when they were just a day or two old.
“I used to say I wanted to have 12 children before I got married,” Shirley said.
But it didn’t take her long, she said, to decide that “five is plenty.”
“And I have been blessed with all five. God has blessed me with a wonderful family,” said Shirley, who also has six grandchildren and is expecting her first great-granchild in January.
Over the years, the Calabrias even welcomed several women into their home, tending to their medical needs and caring for them the best way they knew how.
“That’s what God wants us to do: to care for others and help each other out,” Shirley said.
Shirley came to Twilight Wish’s attention after her daughter-in-law, Tommi Calabria, a member of the Women’s Business Network, McMurray Chapter, whose charity of choice is Twilight Wish, wrote a touching letter outlining the many “things I have done in the past and still keep trying to do,” Shirley said.
Twilight Wish, in turn, did what it does best by fulfilling the twilight wish of an older generation. Sometimes a wish fulfills an immediate quality-of-life need, such as a lift chair or hearing aids. Other times, the wish is one that celebrates a life.
Although Shirley has some medical issues – and was scheduled to undergo knee replacement surgery on Monday – she continues to stay as active as possible.
She works on stained glass, does canvas work and makes afghans.
“If my hands aren’t busy, my mouth is going,” Shirley said. “When you live by yourself, you’re not talking, and when you’re old, you do anything for entertainment. I have a dirt cellar in the back, and my son tells everybody that I even mop and sweep it. I keep it clean of cobwebs, but I’m not sure I mop it.”
She also cans, and she makes jelly “because I can’t let the berries to to waste.”
“Of course, I give it away,” Shirley said. “Like my husband used to say, ‘You still give everything away.’
“It’s the Lord’s will,” added Shirley, who is a member of View Crest Presbyterian Church in Eighty Four, “and he gives us everything we have. It’s his love and generosity to share with others that I do it. I couldn’t do it on my own.”
Most recently, Shirley even befriended a 23-year-old man whose grandparents either died before he was born or when he was a young boy.
“I had dinner for him, and gave him an afghan I made for him, and I gave him a kaleidoscope that I made out of glass. He was happy,” Shirley said. “I told him now he’s got a grandma.”