Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 years ago, my Aunt and Godmother was diagnosed with kidney failure, her only kidney. She received a transplant and that kidney saved her life. She got married and now has two grown children that doctors never thought that she would have. That kidney has been good to her all of these years, however just over 2 years ago, her new kidney started to fail. She began dialysis again and went back on the donor list and waited...
Tonight, she received a call that there was once again a kidney for her. It is such a relief and now we wait for word on how it goes.
Back in January 2004, my now mother-in-law was also diagnosed with renal failure. She too went on dialysis and waited for a kidney. She waited a short time. Her wonderful neighbor selflessly offered to be tested to be a match. She thought, "I'm listed as a donor, why wait until I'm dead when I could do good now." Ironically, that neighbor was a match 100% across the board. Only 9 months later, the transplant was complete and that kidney has worked perfectly since then.
So, tonight I can't help but be thankful to all organ donors. Three people have blessed our family with the wonderful gift of life. Their gift has allowed these two women to live and experience things and events that otherwise they may have missed.
My aunt may not have ever met her husband and they never would have had two children that are smart, driven and ambitious and one day, I have no doubt that they will do great things. And now she will be able to see them both graduate college, get married and have kids of their own. And although I am incredibly thankful, I send my condolences out to the family who has lost someone they love. We will never know who you are, but I pray that they find comfort in knowing that the untimely death of their loved one has blessed our family and given us many more years to enjoy together.
And tonight I am equally as thankful to the wonderful woman who gave of herself to help a neighbor. Without that kidney, my mother-in-law may never have lived to be my mother-in-law. She may never have met the grandson that she loves and adores with all her heart.
There is a long list of people just like my aunt and mother-in-law, that wait every day for that same phone call. Organ donation saves lives. Please, check the organ donor box on the back of your license, make sure your family knows your intentions if something were to happen to you. Your own selfless act may save someone else's life.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Posted with Blogsy
Friday, July 27, 2012
Touched by an Angel?
I've been wanting to get back into writing again lately, but didn't want to write a "hey, I'm back" post. I wanted to wait until I had something meaningful to write about. Last night, that blog post found me, as I'm sure, so did my angel.
After dinner, I decided to go grocery shopping, even though it is the last thing I want to do at 7pm. New Jersey was supposed to get some severe thunderstorms, but the sun was out and the sky was relatively clear. The clouds looked anything but threatening. So, I headed off to the store, list in hand. As I made it through the store, I kept looking out the window watching as the sky grew darker and more menacing. I knew I only had a handful of things left to buy and I had a week's worth of shopping done.
As I stood at the deli counter, I could start to hear thunder. My husband called me, very worried about the storm and I was out in it. Not to mention we still had to cart all that stuff up the stairs. I assured him I'd be fine and I only had a few things left to buy. A gentleman standing at the counter must have overheard my conversation and asked me, "what number do you have?". I replied saying 7 (they were on number 5). He proceeded to switch numbers with me saying, "you're husband seems worried and I have nowhere to be". I thanked him and told him how grateful I was because quite honestly, the storm was getting bad. He was an Italian guy, maybe in his mid forties. He wore gym shorts and a t-shirt and had salt and pepper hair. He looked like the type of guy that coached his son's little league team. He was through ordering before I finished and he was gone.
I ran and got the last of my list and went through the register, paid and bagged all my groceries. You could tell I just wanted to get out of there because my normally organized packing took a serious hit. I just wanted to get done and get home.
By this point, the ran was coming down so hard that the parking lot was flooding, it was very windy and the lightening was pretty vicious. I stood outside under the awning with a few other shoppers. I looked around and said out loud, "FML". We all giggled and I decided it was now or never.
Just as I reached the divide between the cement and the asphalt and just when I was about to get soaked, a car pulled up right in front of me with an umbrella hanging out the window. It was the man from the deli counter. He asked me where I was parked and I pointed to my truck just across the way.
He pulled away and I opened the umbrella and headed to the truck. I was a little nervous about holding an umbrella during a lightening storm, standing in a puddle. But something told me I'd be fine and not to be scared. I quickly loaded all my things into the truck and in the faith of paying it forward, I returned the cart to under the awning.
As I made it back to the truck, the man pulled up again. I folded his umbrella, shook it out and handed it to him through the window. I said, "you were like my angel tonight, thank you so much." He said, "just get home safe" and drove away.
It isn't often that you meet a total stranger that would do that much for another person and I feel truly blessed to have been touched by an angel last night. And even if this man wasn't really an angel, than at the very least my faith in the human race has been slightly restored.
After dinner, I decided to go grocery shopping, even though it is the last thing I want to do at 7pm. New Jersey was supposed to get some severe thunderstorms, but the sun was out and the sky was relatively clear. The clouds looked anything but threatening. So, I headed off to the store, list in hand. As I made it through the store, I kept looking out the window watching as the sky grew darker and more menacing. I knew I only had a handful of things left to buy and I had a week's worth of shopping done.
As I stood at the deli counter, I could start to hear thunder. My husband called me, very worried about the storm and I was out in it. Not to mention we still had to cart all that stuff up the stairs. I assured him I'd be fine and I only had a few things left to buy. A gentleman standing at the counter must have overheard my conversation and asked me, "what number do you have?". I replied saying 7 (they were on number 5). He proceeded to switch numbers with me saying, "you're husband seems worried and I have nowhere to be". I thanked him and told him how grateful I was because quite honestly, the storm was getting bad. He was an Italian guy, maybe in his mid forties. He wore gym shorts and a t-shirt and had salt and pepper hair. He looked like the type of guy that coached his son's little league team. He was through ordering before I finished and he was gone.
I ran and got the last of my list and went through the register, paid and bagged all my groceries. You could tell I just wanted to get out of there because my normally organized packing took a serious hit. I just wanted to get done and get home.
By this point, the ran was coming down so hard that the parking lot was flooding, it was very windy and the lightening was pretty vicious. I stood outside under the awning with a few other shoppers. I looked around and said out loud, "FML". We all giggled and I decided it was now or never.
Just as I reached the divide between the cement and the asphalt and just when I was about to get soaked, a car pulled up right in front of me with an umbrella hanging out the window. It was the man from the deli counter. He asked me where I was parked and I pointed to my truck just across the way.
He pulled away and I opened the umbrella and headed to the truck. I was a little nervous about holding an umbrella during a lightening storm, standing in a puddle. But something told me I'd be fine and not to be scared. I quickly loaded all my things into the truck and in the faith of paying it forward, I returned the cart to under the awning.
As I made it back to the truck, the man pulled up again. I folded his umbrella, shook it out and handed it to him through the window. I said, "you were like my angel tonight, thank you so much." He said, "just get home safe" and drove away.
It isn't often that you meet a total stranger that would do that much for another person and I feel truly blessed to have been touched by an angel last night. And even if this man wasn't really an angel, than at the very least my faith in the human race has been slightly restored.
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