A Warm Way to Cap a Long Life : 88-Year-Old Orange Woman Finds Premature Tots a Knitter’s Delight

Rose Bernberg, 88, first volunteered to knit caps for premature infants at Childrens Hospital of Orange County because she had free time on her hands.

What she didn’t expect was to churn out 300 caps in under two years. She has even landed some caps on the cover of People magazine.

“I just got going, and now it looks like I’ll be doing this until my fingers drop off,” she said.

The magazine cover starred not Bernberg but five of the Frustaci infants, sporting tiny cuffed ski-type caps Bernberg has knitted for hundreds of infants in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the last two years.

The caps help premature babies by keeping in body heat, which is mostly lost through the head. The insulation allows the premature infants to spend calories on growing rather than keeping warm, according to hospital spokeswoman Laura Johnson.

Traditionally they have been knitted by volunteers. Bernberg, from Orange, is by far the most prolific. Noting that her own daughter, now 60, was born prematurely, Bernberg says she has a special affection for the tiny infants.

Cooing over week-old Larinda Wright, who wore a knitted cap outside the newborn intensive-care unit in Orange on Wednesday, Bernberg recalled, “Each cap takes about six hours to knit. I made hats with little pompons for the Frustacis--they were special. But I thought in general they would be too heavy for the babies.”

Bernberg said she never tires of the task, making caps, booties and blankets for her two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. “I switched from multicolored yarn to blue and pink after the 54th cap, for a little variety,” she said.

She volunteered to knit the caps through a senior citizens’ group in Santa Ana, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, or RSVP. “I think this has really opened up Rose’s life,” said program coodinator Kitty Schuler. “She has arthritis, but it doesn’t keep her from doing useful things.”