It was five days before she turned four months old.
Katia Fiorentino’s first and only daughter went to bed with her mother like she always did. But she didn’t wake up.
Silvia Fiorentino Pires died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome the morning of Jan. 15, 2002, while in Italy with her mother.
“She was a strong and healthy baby,” said Katia, a fifth year international student. “She could hold her bottle all by herself. You wouldn’t dare to help her. She was very proud of herself.”
Katia laughed as she spoke of her daughter, a surreal smile on her face as she fought back tears.
Silvia was not a stranger to USM. Her mother would regularly bring her to classes.
“I met the baby many times,” said Domenica Cipollone, director of International Exchange Programs. “(Katia) took her to class and to her campus job. There are a lot of people on campus who know Silvia because she was around all (fall) semester.”
Katia said Silvia almost never cried during classes. She recalled only one time when her daughter had an episode.
“Once she cried during an exam,” said Katia. “It’s because it was so quiet. I was ready to leave the room when the professor held her and took her outside.”
The ordeal is nowhere near over for the young family as it is now trying to pay for the travel expenses associated with getting back and forth to Italy, funeral costs and lost wages.
But now a group is trying to make things a little easier for Katia and her husband.
A local non-profit organization has coordinated a memorial fund to help Silvia’s parents.
The Jason Program, which usually works with families that have sick and dying children, decided to expand its mission.
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this for a family,” said Jane Honeck, treasurer of the Jason Program. “It sounded like something we could help with.”
The Jason Program, based in Cumberland, has established the Silvia Fiorentino Pires Memorial Fund. It will give 100 percent of the collected money to Silvia’s parents.
“I was trying to think of a way to have the contributions be deductible,” said Honeck, a certified public accountant. “(The fund) seemed to tie right in with our mission. It seems the least we can do.”
Cipollone has already put out a message on the USM Listserve encouraging members of the USM community to contribute.
Both Cipollone and Honeck said they wished they could do more to help Katia and her husband deal with the tragedy.
Executive Editor Steve Peoples can be contacted at: [email protected]