Mom got first one, now others benefit

Maria Fiorille has been working to comfort victims of serious illnesses, especially those awaiting organ donations. She knows the pain these people and their families are experiencing, because she lost her mother, Sharon, to liver disease in January.

The first blanket Maria made was for her mother, while she was undergoing treatment at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. Sharon kept the blanket close to her wherever she went. It wasn't just the physical comfort that blanket offered, but it was the loved and devotion it represented.

Sharon Fiorille grew up in Moravia and worked for the Southern Cayuga Central School District as the secretary for the Committee on Special Education. She was described by some of her co-workers as following a curriculum that was “comprised of courage and caring for others.” She received her first liver transplant in 1999. Within 10 years her body rejected the liver, putting Sharon's health and life at risk. She received a second liver in November 2006, but before she could be released to a nursing home for rehabilitative therapy, an aneurysm took her life.

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