Ten years ago Jill Martuza started a group of volunteer quilters, called the MGH Comforters. The MGH Comforters make quilts to donate to patients; more than 650 quilts have been donated to Mass General patients since 2001.
Mass General Cancer Center patients have been the recipients of many quilts, including six patients in inpatient units and children being treated in the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center. Quilts also are given to Christopher’s Haven, a place where many families stay while their children are being treated for cancer at Boston-area hospitals.
The MGH Comforters, though unseen, provide solace to patients and their families. A pediatric nurse in the proton center said that the quilts help calm the children as they go through treatment. One patient’s wife indicated how comforted she felt by her husband’s quilt after his passing. Another patient’s daughter wrote about the quilt given to her mother, now being used by the patient’s infant grandson, “The poignancy of seeing this sweet baby, who my mom would have adored, lying on the blanket she passed away under is so sweet and touching. Thank you for your service and your love towards our family.”
