If love really does come in all shapes and sizes, then Mali Dean’s comes in the form of tiny, handmade baby booties.
Dean, 61, works as a custodian in the Birth Center of Stevens Hospital. On her break and during her lunch hour, she often can be found sitting quietly, knitting her tiny gifts for the babies who enter the world at Stevens. Some of the booties are larger than others, some decorated in colors to match current holidays. But all of them are made with her special touch.
“They’re just darling,” said Joyce Miller, a clinical nurse manager at Stevens. “She puts so much life into them – and it’s rare she misses a patient.”
This hobby, and her work ethic, is what hospital staff and patients say recently earned Dean the honor of being named the 2004 Stevens Healthcare Employee of the Year. Dean received the award in January.
“This woman takes her own time on her breaks to touch each of these babies’ families,” one family wrote to Stevens in a letter. Dean, an Edmonds resident who is originally from Thailand and has four grown children of her own, was humble about the award.
“I was very surprised – I was not expecting it,” she said. “I am just happy that people appreciate my work.”
Since Dean began working at Stevens in 1989, Miller guesses she’s made several thousand pairs of booties.
“She makes them for all the babies, all different sizes,” Miller said. “She makes sure she’s giving parents the sizes that fit their little one.”
Dean said she began making the booties two years ago when she started working in the Birth Center.
“Before that, I would just knit for family, friends and Stevens employees,” Dean said. “I really enjoy doing it for patients.”
Over the years, some of the nurses have donated money or materials to help Dean’s efforts. Everything else comes out of her own pocket and is done on her own time. Because there are many babies born in the Birth Center, Dean said she would be happy to have anyone volunteer to help make the booties.
“I like to make happy babies, patients, nurses and families,” Dean said.
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