Lillian Weber kept her word. The 99-year-old woman, who sews a handmade dress every single day for small girls in Africa, reached her goal of 1,ooo dresses yesterday.
“And, as soon as I get this one done, I’ll probably go for the next one,” she told a local TV station.
Lillian, whose goal was to sew a thousand dresses before her 100th birthday in May, is the most celebrated woman in her Davenport senior community, where she and others regularly create frocks for the Christian outreach group Little Dresses for Africa.
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As a special promise to her, the group’s founder, Rachel O’Neill, vowed that she would hand-deliver some of Lillian’s colorful dresses and send back photos of the little girls wearing them.
“She’s very selfless,” said Lillian’s daughter. “She just wants to help these little girls.”
Seamstresses in 31 countries have donated dresses to the Michigan-based nonprofit that ships them to schools, orphanages and churches.
“Nine times out of ten, they always say, ‘Well, old people don’t do anything,’ but they do,” Lillian said.
Lillian proves that point daily – one dress at a time – and she is nowhere near quitting.
(WATCH a video below or READ the story from WQAD)