50 People To Know: Meet Grandma Rosie, The Happy Hatter
KEYPORT, N.J. (WCBS 880) – Resting in her easy chair with her kind eyes and endearing smile, Rose Terhune is the quintessential grandmother.
"They call me Grandma Rosie, the happy hatter," she tells Sean Adams.
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Her one room apartment in Keyport is chalk full of yarn – boxes and boxes of yarn neatly stacked.
"I crochet hats, and scarves and blankets for many different organizations," she says.
She does this for newborns, kids with cancer, women receiving chemotherapy and the homeless.
"I make a baby blanket for Lehigh Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania for stillborn babies. So that when the baby is born, the parents can hold the baby, take pictures with what they call a memory blanket, and then they'll take the blanket home," she says.
Her grandmother taught her how to crochet. A car struck Terhune when she was little. The near-death experience changed her.
"As a 5-year-old girl, I always had peace in my heart and love for people," she says.
She's on a crocheting crusade, making hundreds of hats and blankets every year. Her social security check funds her mission and kind folks – her angels, she calls them – they donate yarn, too.
"I would like everybody to feel like I do in their heart and to help everybody," she says.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen.
"I'm making chicken soup right now," she says.
Terhune also feeds her neighbors at the Bethany Manor senior community.
"I have a big pot of chicken soup ready to go and it will go to eight people on my floor," she says. "I pay it forward. I feel blessed. And I help a lot of people. And I don't look for anything, but I do get – I get back in my heart, I know people care," she says.
And that's payment enough for Grandma Rosie, the happy hatter.