People give her shawls

Joyce Carol Oates:

“I guess I must look like someone who needs a shawl,” she said in the deadpan in which all her jokes are delivered, and which has led the less observant to think her humorless. She is grateful for the shawls, if slightly puzzled by the regularity with which they appear.

But then she is both puzzled by and grateful for many gifts, not being one to splurge.

She'd be much better off with a good bra. Seriously, there's no reason for anyone to go around looking like that.