Lorina Mullen professes that she doesn’t need much to be happy.

At 90 years of age and in good health, she’s perfectly content with a book in her hand and shrugs at the thought of needing much else.

There’s no television inside Mullen’s quaint Coupeville apartment. No computer. Not even a microwave oven.

“I’m about to give up on my radio, to tell you the truth,” she said, upset over the frequent commercial interruptions.

What pleases Mullen most is the personal joy she gets by making others happy.

As she looked around her living room in recent months, she realized she possessed some gifts that she wanted to share.

A self-taught painter, she donated 21 pieces of art to Habitat for Humanity of Island County, which is displaying a few at a time and selling them from its Oak Harbor store.

Most were painted by Mullen, whose work has been shown at the Coupeville Library.

“I don’t want to sound soupy. The feeling is sincere,” Mullen said. “If I can make someone else happy, that makes me happy. It brings added joy to me.

“In a way it’s kind of selfish because it makes me happy.”

Mullen’s kind gestures have brought smiles to the face of Whitey Kirschenmann, manager of the Oak Harbor store.

He said he met Mullen a couple years ago when she came into the store to buy a lamp for her neighbor as a gift.

“Lorina’s goal is to do something good for someone every day,” Kirschenmann said. “So over the past few years, she has been buying things and giving them away to help people out.”

Pretty soon, the answer was right in front of her face.

She chose to give away her paintings to a cause that is dear to her.

Habitat for Humanity builds and renovates homes through donations to offer people an affordable place to live.

“I was taking in by what they do,” Mullen said. “I like the idea of being able to get a home for the first time. I think of how exciting and happy that must make them feel.

“I had the idea at my age, though I’m blessed with health, I could go at any time. So I was thinking, ‘Why wait until I’m gone?’”

Mullen sketched as a child and young woman but didn’t get serious about painting with acrylics until after a divorce at age 40.

She paints landscapes and portraits, including one of a gentleman holding a jug she named “Wilhelm.”

“He’s really unhappy because his jug is empty,” Mullen said, laughing.

A couple paintings at a time will be displayed at the Oak Harbor store, which has already benefitted from the sale of two of her art pieces.

“She’s such a sweet lady,” said Sadi Foltz, development director with Habitat for Humanity of Island County.

“She actually sold one outside of the store and came in with a check for us.”

“Lorina is one of the kindest, generous people I have met in my 45 years in the retail business,” said Kirschenmann, who spent 39 years as an executive with Sears.

“One cannot say how much we need more Lorinas in this world.”