Retired MetroWest Medical Center Nurse Still Bringing Comfort One Quilt at a Time

Though she retired from MetroWest Medical Center in 2021 after a remarkable 39-year career, former nurse and Framingham resident Sharon Arroyo continues to touch the lives of patients and families through her quilting.

Several times a year, she returns to the hospital with stacks of handmade quilts, some for newborns in the hospital’s Beautiful Beginnings Birth Center and Special Care Nursery and others for adult patients receiving comfort care.

She first began quilting for newborns after seeing a similar project at a local quilt shop. “I get a lot of satisfaction out of pushing it forward,” she said. “I saw this project at a quilt store, they were providing blankets for a hospital, and I decided to make them for the Special Care Unit at my hospital.”

Her work later expanded to include memory quilts for adults receiving end-of-life care.
“Working as a nurse, I realized that there is so much compassion needed with comfort-care patients,” she said. “I decided to make some blankets for them, a memory quilt. I thought it would be nice for the families to have afterwards.”

Beyond bringing comfort to patients, the quilting brings comfort to her as well. “It’s my therapy,” she says. “It’s a two-sided donation. A lot of these families don’t have much, and they really appreciate getting these little blankets.”

Sharon says MetroWest Medical Center will always be in her heart.
“It became my home,” she said. “You’re here more of the time sometimes than you spend at home. It will always be a part of my heart.”

Sharon is pictured on the right with a recent batch of quilts she delivered to nurses at MetroWest Medical Center, alongside Esperanza Brown, PT, Virginia Ford, RN, Debbie Durgin, RN, and Juliane Reczek, RN.