Giving her all

Local
By Randall Ware
Source: Fauquier Weekend
SATURDAY, JUNE 28 2008

Some people call her “the bread lady” and others refer to her as “a prayer warrior.” One woman from Ireland has dubbed her “a little leprechaun.”

Ann Dores spends more time coming to the rescue of people who need help than she does attending to her own needs.

“She would give you her last penny,” says Carmen Jewel. “I’ve never met anyone like her in my life.”

Jewel and her husband, who is ill with cancer, have known Dores for about 10 years. This past December the couple was going through a particularly rough time.

“We didn’t have any sheets for my husband’s hospital bed. Ann went everywhere to find some. Goodwill, Hospice, friends….She even bought some herself to give to us,” recalled Jewell.

Providing bed linens was not all that Dores did. “She brought us bread, when we didn’t have bread,” said Jewel. “One day she just gave me $20 for food.”

Jewel’s brother is also very ill. For Christmas last year, Dores saw that he got clothes and other items he needed.

“She gives you hope when you feel like there is no hope,” said Jewel. “Sometimes when bad things happen in life, your friends forget you. This lady never forgets you.”

Finding ways to give is something that comes naturally to Dores.

“It is born in me to help people,” said Dores, whose remarkably girlish face belies her 72 years. Indeed, she has been providing for others her entire life.

She recalled her first act of charity as a young girl. By saving stamps and turning in proof-of-purchase labels to a dog food company, Dores purchased a seeing-eye dog for a blind person, providing a stranger with both a long-time protector and a companion.

There is always something you can do for others, no matter what you have yourself, Dores said. It may take some creativity, but that is what she does best. No one knows better than she, how to stretch a dollar.

A Social Security check of $777 a month is virtually her only income. “But I can do more with that than someone with a million dollars,” she said.

One day years ago, Dores was grocery shopping at Safeway when she noticed a stock girl taking cakes off a shelf and putting them into a cart. She asked the stock girl what she was doing and learned that the baked goods were thrown out after a certain number of days on the shelves. Dores got permission from the store manager to take the food that would otherwise be wasted.

“It is a disgrace how people throw out things other people can use,” she said.

That was the start of daily trips to the grocery store to load up on goods to be distributed to neighbors, friends, or the Salvation Army.

Recently, Dores collected bags of salad mix and apples from the Warrenton Giant and took them to the Oak Springs Nursing Home for residents. Sometimes she goes to Food Closet giveaways at local churches to get canned foods to distribute.

She has such a reputation for giving things away that Dores has become known in the county as a kind of charitable collector.

Frequently, people give her clothes which she in turn gives away or takes to a homeless shelter. Some things she keeps herself.

“I never buy clothes or shoes,” she said, noting that saving money on these items allows her to spend her money on someone else.

Debbie Campbell met Dores 16 years ago after having had a massive heart attack when she was only 31 years old.

“My husband left me after I got sick,” Campbell said, adding that Dores began arriving regularly on her doorstep with moral support as well as loaves of bread, cakes and flowers.

Later, after Campbell had two gastric bypass surgeries, Dores provided more than food.

“There were things I couldn’t afford,” Campbell recalled. “They were going to turn my electricity off. Ann gave me a list of names to call...Community Action, people like that.”

After making contact with the right authorities, Campbell was able to make arrangements to have her utility bill paid and didn’t lose her electricity.

Campbell said her appreciation for Dores cannot be measured.

“You don’t find too many Ann Dores anymore,” said Campbell.

Another time, Dores sent money to Campbell’s sister who lives in Buena Vista, Va. During Hurricane Isabel, Campbell's sister’s house was swept off its foundation and floated down a river. “Ann had never even met my sister,” said Campbell. “She will do anything for anybody.”

Just about the only thing that keeps Dores from coming to the aid of others is an empty tank and no money for gasoline. When that happens, she just waits for her Social Security check to come, then she is back on the road.

“In the snow, sleet and rain, she comes,” said Delores Ball, a friend of Dores. “If you ask Ann for help, you can get almost anything you need.”

To locate things for people, Dores reads the classified section in the newspaper, seeking out a recliner for a neighbor, a car for a friend, used dishes for a church. Transportation is not a problem. Dores has a pick-up truck, a dolly, and a son who is 6 feet 7 inches tall to help her move things.

Ball remembers a time when Dores took in a young homeless girl until she found her a job and a place to live.

Another time she came to the aid of a young mother who was working in the meat department at Giant. Her baby had outgrown its bassinet. By asking friends for donations and scraping together some of her own money, Dores purchased a crib from Sears for the young woman.

Dores grew up in The Plains, the fourth of 12 children. She left home at the age of 11 to work in a boarding house in Marshall. There, she washed dishes and cleaned for the residents. She did not have her own room and was made to sleep on a screened porch. When winter came, Dores had had enough. She caught a ride back to The Plains.

Back in her hometown, she attended Taylor High School and began a career as a house worker that lasted 50 years. She worked for many wealthy and prominent families in the county and remembers them all.

Although she says she is losing her memory, she can recall the name of every person she has ever known or worked for, who their relatives are, and every place they have ever lived in Fauquier County.

Joy West met Dores 12 years ago after being in a terrible car accident. Dores’ husband, James had worked for the West’s landlord. After the accident, West was in the hospital for seven weeks with broken feet, a crushed sternum and multiple fractures.

“Mrs. Dores came to see me every day,” said West, adding that even after she came home from the hospital Dores continued to visit, checking on the family and bringing them food.

“She is the best person I have ever met in my entire life,” said West.

Perhaps seeing so many people go through difficult times is what makes Dores feel that she has so much to offer.

“I am truly blessed of all that I have,” said Dores. Despite having serious heart trouble several years ago, she is in good health today. “I have boundless energy,” she said.

Dores lives just outside Warrenton in a modest, one-story frame house which she and her husband bought in the early 1970s. Her husband James passed away in 1996 and the government holds a $17,000 mortgage on the house, which Dores is not obligated to pay off until her death.

The main source of heat for the house is a wood stove in the living room. It doubles as a kitchen stove when Dores endeavors to cook whole hams and pots of beans.

Most Sundays, Dores goes to Beulah Baptist Church in Broad Run. When she is at home, she helps her daughter Carolyn Ann, a registered nurse, take care of her grandson, three-year-old Isaiah, the light of her life.

“He is the first boy in my family in 40 years,” she said.

It may be hard for some to understand how anyone could have such a big heart and be willing to sacrifice so much of what little she has.

The reason for her generosity, however, is simple.

“It's just the golden rule”, said Dores. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."