MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

Hobbies are imperative for those who want to remain active in their older age; at 93, local woman Nell Carter has many.

“She lives by herself and so she still goes out in the garage, builds a fire, and she’ll cut out little things that she feels safe doing. She’ll paint them and decorate them,” says Carter’s daughter Kathy Greenwood. “She loves to have flowers in her yard in the summertime. Of course, she can’t stand a weed, so she’s out there pulling weeds even if she just walks to the mailbox and sees a weed, she’ll stop and pull it.”

Carter also enjoys embroidery and even won a ribbon at the Coffee County Fair last year for a pillowcase that she embroidered. The hobby that she’s probably best known for in the community, though, is her baking.

“She’s always loved to bake, even since I was a child,” says Greenwood. “Pies, cakes, whatever and gave to the people at church or things like that.”

Much like many others of her generation who grew up during the Great Depression, Carter learned to bake out of necessity to feed herself and her family.

Nowadays, she makes Chocolate and Coconut Pies and several different types of cake: German Chocolate, Strawberry, an Orange Mandarin cake that she can make sugar free if need be.

“Once she gets started, if she feels like it and in the mood, she’ll probably bake three at a time in one day,” explained Greenwood. “She might make them one day and then ice them the next, but she has to be in the mood to do it. She does use cake mixes, but the icings are probably 99% from scratch.”

All her grandkids, and now great grandkids, get a decorated cake on their birthdays.

Greenwood says that her mother has even “adopted” several of the teenaged friends of her grandkids over the years who affectionally refer to her as “Granny.”

“She just loves her family,” she says. “She’s just ‘Granny’ to everyone that knows her. She just loves people, and she has a very giving heart.

That giving heart has led Carter to add a new group of people to her list of baked good beneficiaries.

Over the last several years in the winter months when she doesn’t have flowers to tend to, she has made baked goods and, with the help of her daughter, delivered them to first responders.

She’s given various treats to the Police Department, both Fire Departments, the Rescue Squad and the Sheriff’s Department to repay them for all that they do for the community.

“(She) just wanted to give and wanted to bless them the way they bless the community,” says Greenwood. “She knows they have to work holidays and be away from their families, so she just started baking them, and I started dropping them off.”

Manchester Police Department Chief Investigator Bryan Eldridge says Carter’s treats are always appreciated when he puts them in the break room at the Police Department for everyone to enjoy.

“All the patrol and everybody works twelve-hour shifts, so a little pick-me-up like a little sweet treat is always welcome with them,” says Eldridge. “Everybody here really enjoys it and really appreciates all the effort she puts into it because they’re immaculate. They look very pretty, as well as taste very good.”

Eldridge says he tries not to eat a lot of sweets but always makes sure to try one of Carter’s when he gets the chance because he knows how much work she puts into them.

He also explained that since some people in the community do not always have the greatest opinion of police in general, it can lift the spirits of the patrolman to receive the sweet treats.

“We’re always coming into your life probably at the worst… time, so when somebody does appreciate all the hard work that Patrol does, it’s great,” explained Eldridge. “It does help morale to know that there are people out there that do care and do know that you are at least trying to do the right thing day in and day out, every day.”

Greenwood says the treats have gotten good responses from those she dropped them off to and they always “seem very thankful.”

“They really can’t believe she’s done it,” she says. “They all seem to be very surprised when I tell them how old she is and that she thinks about them.”

“She just loves to give.”