Everyone's life has a story. In "Lives," we tell some of those stories about North Shore people who have died recently. "Lives" runs Mondays in The Salem News.

BEVERLY — Helen Twelvetrees was a frequent but mysterious guest at MacDonald family bridal showers and other gift-giving occasions. She was also uninvited, which didn't for one minute faze the famous-in-her-own-mind actress or her equally enigmatic sister, Maxine.

The pair always managed to keep to the shadows, and the only evidence of their attendance would be the gift they left behind. It didn't take many visits before everyone knew it was likely to be the cheapest, tackiest teapot they'd ever seen.

Twelvetrees, the playful alter ego of Eunice A. MacDonald, won't be making any more of her kitschy deliveries, and none of the gift recipients is celebrating the end of the endearing, wacky tradition. MacDonald died Wednesday, Sept. 17, at Salem Hospital at the age of 80.

Someone once told MacDonald's daughter Shari Hewson her mom was one of those people who was comfortable in their own skin. Even if it was animal skin.

She and her husband, the late Earnest MacDonald, lived for many years on Williams Street in Beverly, a quiet strip where, as the song goes, everybody knows your name.

Now, MacDonald was a social butterfly, with the emphasis on social. She thought nothing of changing into her pajamas and a robe and walking across the way for a late-night chat with a neighbor.

"Who is that woman crossing the street in a leopard bathrobe?" a puzzled boy once asked his girlfriend.

You've got to have friends

MacDonald's obituary is a laudable compendium of the service organizations that benefited from her efforts. It's all true, but it's not really the story.

Oh, she had an undeniable sense of the importance of helping those in need, but every one of those groups she aided, from the Girl Scouts to the staff on cruise ships, also afforded her the opportunity to fulfill her own need, the need to be with others.

"Everything was a social event," Shari said. She and her sister, Karen Adamo, tell a tale to illustrate the point.

The family once had to have a large tree taken out of the backyard, and it was too good an opportunity for MacDonald to pass up. She invited all her friends over for tea and cookies on the big day, and there they sat on the back porch, sipping and kibitzing as the tree came down.

MacDonald was a stay-at-home mom until her youngest, Shari, was 15. Then she went back into the work force, and every job she had over the years involved working with other people. It's doubtful she thought of it as work.

She accumulated drawers full of crazy socks she wore to amuse patients at Blueberry Hill Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Beverly.

There are socks with lobsters on them, dogs with hearts on their backsides and, best of all for the patients, socks that played tunes when she walked around in them.

The residents would tell her they were hearing music, and she'd reply with an air of innocence, "I really don't know what you're talking about."

She worked in the laundry, and the skilled seamstress regularly took home residents' clothing that needed mending.

She made Karen's wedding dress. And dresses for the rest of her wedding party. And costumes for a competitive ice skater. And her grandson's christening gown. And on and on.

She later got a job at the Girdler House Retirement Home for Women in Beverly because she was spending so much time there socializing, she figured she might as well get paid for it.

MacDonald and her husband were deeply religious, and passed their faith on to their children. On the day school ended every year, mom and dad were at the schoolhouse door with the car loaded for Camp Wellville, a Christian camp on Lake Winnekeag in Ashburnham.

There, MacDonald and the kids, who eventually numbered four, including Karen and Shari, Bruce and Randy, would spend the remainder of the summer, returning only when school opened in the fall. Dad would come out on Friday night and return to his job Sunday night.

The tradition continues. MacDonald's children, and their children, still spend summers at the camp, and mom and dad were regular visitors until two years ago.

Time to make the doughnuts

We can't end this story without talking about doughnuts, the old-fashioned, homemade kind. Of all the traditions MacDonald started, and there were plenty, her family may miss most of all the to-die-for doughnuts she always made for their birthdays.

Hand-rolled and cut, plopped into a deep fryer and served plain or dusted with cinnamon sugar, they were always delivered still warm.

They'll miss less another birthday tradition. She always called the lucky celebrant first thing in the morning and sing "Happy Birthday" to them over the phone.

"In her lovely, melodious voice," Karen said, rolling her eyes.

MacDonald had to deal with a profound sadness no parent should face. Daughter Randy was killed in a car accident on Sept. 5, 1980, when she was hit by a drunken driver. The MacDonalds responded by establishing a scholarship fund at North Shore Community College in her name, and every year attended the breakfast when it was presented to the recipient.

MacDonald's granddaughter, Kali Martin, said people "just gravitated to her," and the family got a hint of just how far that circle of love spread at her services last week.

She had become uncomfortable her in her pew at the Community Covenant Church in West Peabody in recent months. So a nice, padded chair was brought from the library to the back of the church for her.

It may be there awhile, a fellow congregant told the family at the funeral.

"We can't move it just yet," he said.

Staff writer Steve Landwehr can be reached at 978-338-2660 or by e-mail at slandwehr@salemnews.com.