TOLEDO, Ohio — When going to ProMedica Toledo Hospital and talking to nurses, it's easy to see the impact late Jill Baker had on her nurses.
"Her hospital stays would usually be about two weeks long and she would be in a few times a year And I knew her for probably eight years," Nurse Jacob Knoblauch said.
Baker's family started distributing blankets in her honor. When she was at the hospital after receiving a transplant, she received one and thought it was an amazing gesture.
Some nurses were so touched by Baker, they even dropped off blankets for her family to pass out.
Room by room, Baker's parents stopped by to wish a happy New Year and share her story. Ultimately, spreading some warmth.
"They're not forgotten and the blankets are something to give them just a little comfort you know to help them get through the day," Baker's Mom Michelle Lewallen said.
Baker was 29 when she died in October. Aside from hoping to help animals at the Humane Society once she got healthy, she was an advocate for organ donation and for cystic fibrosis patients like Courtney Gorenflo
"I hear about other people passing away with it and it's real hard, but it's nice to know they're still holding on to her and her memory and the things she wanted to do," Gorenflo said.
Gorenflo's goal for the New Year is simple.
"Kinda want better health for myself and for other people," she said.
Bake's family walks the hallway with Knoblauch, a nurse Baker knew well.
They connect with families who are in the same shoes they've been in many times before and understand their wishes for health in the new year.
"A lot of times here, the patients, they aren't getting home for Christmas, they aren't getting home the next day or that week, so it's not so bad for me when I can set it up to be home the next day," Knoblauch said.
On Wednesday, Linda Brown serves as a joyous symbol being discharged from the hospital. The blanket is a parting gift.
"I'm lucky because I didn't know if we would make it or not, but I made it," Brown said.
But she did, and now the little tag on her blanket serves as a symbol of Baker's fierce spirit as she fights to get better.
Baker received a double lung transplant before succumbing to cystic fibrosis complications, but was able to do many things in her last year she couldn't do before.