Honoring a friend’s memory with a Franciscan Health donation

For the past year, Jennifer Wilkins has been a woman on a mission, knitting prayer shawls and hats for cancer patients.

The Crestwood, Illinois, woman undertook the project to honor her friend Lynne Recupido, who died from cancer on March 1, 2020. “Even when she was going through what she was going through, she accepted it. I’m sure she didn’t want to leave this world. She knew at some point she would be with the spirit in the sky.”

Wilkins said when she gets rolling, she can probably get a shawl made in three to four days. Her original intention was to donate shawls and hats every month, but the unknowns early during the pandemic didn’t allow those kinds of donations. Finally, she was able to connect with Franciscan Health Foundation Executive Director Laurie Crosby to make the donation.

Wilkins, joined on her birthday by her longtime friend Mary Beth Bohadlo, made the donation of about 10 shawls and 10 hats to Franciscan Health Patricia A. Joyce Comprehensive Cancer Center Olympia Fields.

“My heart goes out to these people. I know Lynne is not one of kind, and all these people have a story,” Wilkins said. “There’s nothing medically I can do, but at least I can raise their spirits … so, that’s why I’m doing this.”

Wilkins said she hopes her efforts will leave a mark. “These people who get these shawls won’t know it’s me, but if they pass these shawls down to a daughter, that will make me feel good.