Portrait of a heroine: Rose Bowl float honors organ donors’ generosity

Feature story for The Commercial Appeal

Dec. 30, 2010

Thomas “Tad” Daniel said his wife, Jill, used to talk a lot about organ donation. In fact, the ICU nurse for Baptist Memorial Hospital was adamant that, should anything happen to her, her organs and tissue should be donated in order to help others live.

“Usually it was on Friday nights when we’d get our night alone together, and if the weather was right, we’d sit on the back porch and listen to our music, and she brought it up several times,” Tad Daniel said. “It wasn’t even a decision for me; she made me promise her that I’d make sure her organs were donated.”

Those wishes were carried out in September 2009 when 50-year-old Jill Daniel suffered several irreversible cerebral hemorrhages, leaving behind her husband and three children. In the end, the men and women with whom she worked so closely were charged with her care.

“It hits close to home, and it was very touching and very touchy, because it let us know that life is very precious and you never know when the Lord is going to call you,” said Kim Gilley, an organ recovery coordinator for Mid-South Transplant Foundation, who worked with Jill over the years … (read more)

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