Veronica Doneit "Vera" ElAttrache liked to keep busy. She would work on the latest baby blanket she was knitting for a friend at a stoplight or while sitting in the bleachers at her children's ball games. She administered an allergy shot for a friend before their weekly lunch date.

And when the opportunity arose, more than 30 years ago, to open a Meals on Wheels program in her hometown of Mount Pleasant, the registered nurse and full-time mother helped lead the effort.

Ms. ElAttrache, 70, died Sunday, following a three-year struggle with ovarian cancer. She left her family complete plans for her funeral service.

"My mom didn't know a heart she couldn't mend or a tear she couldn't wipe dry. If she could help everyone else enjoy themselves, that's what she loved to do," said her daughter, Robin Gallagher, of Sewickley Heights.

Ms. ElAttrache co-founded the Mount Pleasant Meals on Wheels Program in the early 1970s with the Rev. Eugene Newell, Ruth Papernick and several other community members.

Social workers from Westmoreland Regional Hospital and Frick Hospital called her to arrange for hot meals to be delivered to home-bound patients. Ms. ElAttrache also helped the team of volunteers deliver the meals each week.

The concept was still so new it was difficult at first to persuade people to accept the meals, Papernick said. But Ms. ElAttrache persevered and had great success with the program.

She sang soprano with the Westmoreland Choral Society beginning in 1978, and later served as president and general manager of the globe-trotting chorus. She also served on the Mount Pleasant Area school board from 1981 to 1983.

Ms. ElAttrache was born in New York City, raised in Chicago and first settled with her husband, Dr. Selim ElAttrache, in Salt Lake City before they relocated to Mount Pleasant.

In addition to her husband and daughter, she is survived by three sons, Neal, of Los Angeles, Reid, of Peters, and Dean, of Virginia Beach, Va.; a sister, Jeanette Krause, of Brookfield, Wis.; and five grandchildren.

Visitors will be received from noon to 8 p.m. today at the Brooks Funeral Home, 406 Washington Street, Mount Pleasant. The funeral will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 246 S. Main Street, Greensburg, followed by an informal memorial service and luncheon at St. Michael's Orthodox Church, Ashland Avenue, Greensburg.

Donations can be made to the Joan English Fund for Women's Cancer Research, 1600 Mahall Place, Dominguez, CA 90220 or Mount Pleasant Meals on Wheels, 822 W. Main Street, Mount Pleasant, PA 15666.