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Fisher hoped to have a Christmas Box Angel statue placed in a park where parents who had lost children, as she had, could remember and reflect.
She died last week, but not before a community fundraiser produced the final $5,000 needed to fund the statue’s purchase.
“She knows it was ordered,” said her husband, Jesse Fisher.
The Oshkosh Common Council in January approved placing the statue in Menominee Park. But the decision led to a controversy involving concerns over separation of church and state, which put a damper on fundraising efforts.
Still, the Fishers fought on, said family friend Nancy Sobralski.
“She wanted to do something for other parents,” Sobralski said.
Fisher’s inspiration was the memory of her daughter Alyssa, who died in a car crash in 2003 at the age of 20.
In early October, Fisher’s group raised the final $5,000 it needed to order the angel statue, which will have a wingspan of over five feet.
A few days after Jesse Fisher placed the order, Sharon died of epithelioid sarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer.
“There was a 95 percent cure rate so the fact that she was dying made her mad,” Sobralski said. “But the cancer never slowed her down, it was the treatment that did.”
Jesse Fisher said he ordered the statue even though he’s not sure yet where it will go.
But family friends including Carol Ross say they plan to honor Sharon’s wishes and not let the statue be placed in a cemetery or on hospital grounds.
“If a piece of land doesn’t come up, we’ll purchase a lot ourselves,” Ross said. “And Jesse isn’t going to have to do this alone because we’ll help.”
