Tanya Boike, a friend of Willie Nelson's granddaughter, Noelle Ward, recently started making masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19. When she told Noelle she'd earmarked a pair for the 86-year-old music legend and his wife, Annie D'Angelo, Noelle said her grandfather had other plans for the gift.
"[Noelle] texted me a few minutes later and said, 'Pops would rather sign these and have them auction them off. That way you can get more materials and keep making these masks for free,'" Boike told Texas CBS affiliate KTRK.
"I just lost it. That's not what I had made them for," Boike marveled.
By that point, the Houston resident and her friend, nurse Monica Cabazos, had already made and given away more than 500 masks, inspired in part by the strong community support Cabazos had witnessed in the aftermath of the Harvey flooding in Houston.
"Everybody was helping each other," she recalled.
The CDC now recommends cloth face coverings be worn in public to slow the spread of the disease, which can be carried by people with no symptoms. That makes Boike and Cabazos' DIY project a true lifesaver.
Nelson went ahead and signed the masks and suggested Boike and Cabazos put them up for auction with FrontLine-Angels Charity auction website. The masks became available on Saturday, April 25 and the auction is currently set to run for four days, with all proceeds going to supplies for the production of more free masks.
As for Nelson's selfless act?
"Well, that's him. That's who he is. That's him every day," the singer's granddaughter told KTRK. "He's just relaxed. He's just giving. He's just got a great smile, and he's just the best."
Bidding for each autographed mask starts at $200, but the FrontLine-Angels' website lists their value as "priceless."
Just like Willie.