86-year-old cancer patient gives premature babies over 300 hand-knit hats

Ed Moseley hand-knit 55 hats.

Eighty-six year old, Ed Moseley has helped impact the lives of over 300 premature babies and their families.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Despite his cancer diagnosis, Ed taught himself how to knit so that he could provide special warm tiny hats to local babies.

"I just followed the instructions. It was easy," explained Ed to ABC News, noting his daughter got him a knitting kit and after two or three mess ups, he started achieving a good product. "I always associated knitting with a bunch of needles, but this looked pretty doable for me."

"Our corporate office gave us a challenge to see how many knit baby caps each community could make," JoAn Hobbs, the facility's executive director, explained to ABC News. "The goal was 200 caps for the entire eight communities, but it seems that Dogwood Forest was the only one to really participate."

Ed, who lives at the Dogwood Forest Assisted Living in Acworth, Georgia, managed to knit 55 bright hats all by himself. However, with the help from his friends, family, other staff and his caregiver, Dogwood Forest presented the Northside Hospital NICU with 300 hand-knitted caps.

"To have a gift left at the bedside, or a nurse put the hat on the little baby's head, makes it all seem less like a hospital," expressed Linda Kelly, the clinical manager of the NICU nursery. "It's important for families to see their baby as a baby and not as a patient. This will help to get the families to that spot."

According to ABC News, the parents of the preemies were overjoyed at Ed and Dogwood Forest's warm gifts.

"It means a lot to us because this is our second stint in the NICU," said father Doug Bunt. "To know there are other people who are thinking about the well-being of these babies, our babies, it's really nice to know. The fact this man is taking time out of his day to help the kids really means a lot to us."

Ed's story has circulated all throughout his community and now all over the internet. But for him, the attention and the spotlight are not important things; he just wanted to "pay it forward."

"It's the little things that many people don't think are a big deal that are usually the most special things for these parents who are very anxious and worried about their little babies," Kelly stated to KTVU.

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