Age is just a number when it comes to helping others.
Sister Noreen Muldoon sits in her cozy room at St. Joseph’s Motherhouse in North Bay, knitting needles in hand, surrounded by the toques she lovingly creates for people needing that extra layer of warmth on a cold winter’s day.
Muldoon became a nun in 1945, and she remains active in her religious community to this day.
The 97-year-old has been knitting for roughly 90 years, using the skills taught her by her mother, to make toques for men and women.
“I was, I’d say, around seven or eight when my mother first taught me how to knit. My father was a builder and he had long nails. So, I had a pair of long nails and my mother had string, and I learned to knit with the string. I love knitting,” Muldoon said with a smile.
“And I’m continuing to knit. I came here from Sudbury, where I was living on my own and working. I came here because I was ill, and I needed to recover. In my recovery, I picked up my knitting again. I find it so relaxing and so lovely, and I want to contribute to the community here, the best I can.”
The nonagenarian gets pleasure out of knowing that her toques bring warmth to people on a cold winter’s day, who might otherwise go without.
Muldoon is a happy giver.
“I just love to think that maybe a bit of hope will spring forth, that for the one who wears it, that there will be a better time out of this darkness, that there will come a light.”
As she expertly brings the wool to life, each click of her needles brings feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment.
“It gives me such a sense of inner peace, serenity, joy, and love. It awakens in me a sense of gratitude, that I have everything that I need in my life, and how can I now give to somebody else in my older age?”
The toques are distributed across the city and have gone as far north as Thunder Bay.
Muldoon explains that the Catholic Women’s League at the Pro-Cathedral has been gifting warm items to men and women in need for years, including her toques.
“We helped out here at the community with socks and mitts and everything, so I started right away to contribute toques. I try to have 20 done for them. I’ve done that for many years. I’ve heard from the women who deliver them that the people who get them, really love them,” shared Muldoon.
Her generosity doesn’t stop there.
“There is another place in town, The Gathering Place, that I’ve given a large bag of toques to, for those who might be cold. And I’ve sent about 25 to Thunder Bay to the men who come off the boats at the Thunder Bay port, they’re mostly from the Philippines. One of our Sisters was helping out there, so that was how I came to give to that. I received a beautiful letter from Thunder Bay saying what joy it was to the men who came off the boats when they’re freezing, to have a warm toque.”
Knitting toques is a 12-month project.
“I knit all year, a little bit here and there. It takes a long time. I do this in my spare time because I’m still very involved in my community,” she shared.
The expert knitter purchases balls of wool a little at a time, looking for deals along the way.
“It is my hobby because besides reading and praying, I knit. I stay with the toques because I know the pattern by heart now,” laughed Muldoon.
Before being distributed, the toques get an added personal touch.
“I hold the toque, I bless the toque, and just pray that whoever gets it will have a great sense of hope and belief that better days will come. You’ve got to have hope.” Muldoon plans to continue knitting for as long as she is able.
“It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving,” Mother Teresa.
