Linda Fair suffered a devastating stroke 10 years ago after what was supposed to be a routine sinus surgery.
She still deals with physical and memory problems.
But she is not one to complain. "Hey, every day's a good day to me." she laughs. "I wake up, put something on and think 'Hey, where'd this come from?'
"Some days I can't walk very well. But that's just a small problem. It really is."
Part of her attitude is due to what happened just three months after her stroke. Linda's grandson, Colton, was critically injured. He was left in a wheelchair and blind.
That's when Linda and her family noticed there was a big need for blankets for children at University Hospital. Her grandson was recovering there and at one point they expected him to die there.
"God needs to reach out and touch someone," she tells me, holding out a blanket she has sewn.
You feel this? They're soft. They're warm. [The children] know somebody cares for them. There's hope."
So over the years, as Linda has been recovering, she's also been busy sewing blankets and pillows by the thousands.
"She doesn't sew like you're supposed to on a sewing machine," says her husband, Jerry Fair. "She knows one way, wide open and that's it."
"I do sew too fast," she says while sitting at the machine. "I know..."
"And sometimes she sews through a finger or something," Jerry laughs. "You gotta bandage that up ya know. But that's the biggest thing. She runs them real hard and I have to oil them an awful lot.
Four years ago her friends at the Oak Island United Methodist Church in far South Bexar County started keeping track of how many she makes. Just since then, they've counted 5,300 blankets and more than 2,300 pillows. And they're still counting.
"She donates everything and gives everything and gives the United Methodist Women the credit," says Joey Glowka. "We help when we can by donating fabric and donating thread and once in a while we kick in a little money. But it's hers. And we just love her."
And Linda will sew those little blankets and pillows from pretty much anything. Anything she can get donated, or buy at garage sales, thrift shops and discount stores.
But she has a limit. "Forty-nine cents, let me tell you," she says.
And if they want more than that? What does she say? "Sorry. I waited three weeks for that size 4x house coat so I could make 18 pillows out of it for the nursing home.
That's right. She said nursing home, because over the years her little project to provide some blankets for children just kept expanding.
"Nursing homes need everything in the God's World," Linda says. "From a hair bow... They can't purchase those things for people. Like every motel I go to, Lord! I just raid those things really good. All the shampoos, vanity kits. They can't purchase some of those things for the people."
"Jewelry? Oh, you know how women love jewelry... The gaudier, the sparkles...
Girls at 50 years old to 90 years old love the same thing."
And Linda's own 95-year-old mother-in-law Mary, who lives with them, has her own role in what their church has now dubbed The Fair Cottage Ministry. Mary crochets the little caps.
All of this is an inspiration to everyone around them.
"It's her idea. Her passion," says Linda's sister, Doris Gayle. "And she has just taken the rest of us along with it."
Linda's great-niece, Kacey Seifert, agrees. "It's just amazing and I want to do it because I'm learning how to sew. And she's amazing, just the best aunt ever.
"I know that this is really what we're supposed to be doing," Linda says. "You know, some of us oldies are goodies," she laughs, as she cranks up her sewing machine.
