Volunteering

Today was one of the most meaningful I have had in a while... ok, well at least since the day that I had the kidney transplant. I attended an event with the Mid-South Transplant Foundation, and I had the pleasure of meeting a few families who made the undoubtedly difficult decision to donate the organs of a family member they lost. To say the least, I was in awe. Here are these families who have lost a loved one (usually a child) and had the foresight to pass on a gift to someone who needs an organ, tissue, or bone marrow. I met one lady and couldn't help but wonder what was going through her head. Her son died in January of this year and she decided to have his organs donated. I just looked at her for a moment and hugged her. Even though I was not the recipient of any of her child's organs, I just wanted to touch her, to let her know that she was my hero for making the decision that she made at one of the most vulnerable moments in her life.

It is one thing to think about the donor and the donor family. It is something completely different to come face to face with them. No words can express what either person feels at the exact moment a recipient meets a donor or a donor family. "Thank You" seems so trite in moments like these. You are looking at someone whose loved ones organs may be residing in your abdomen. Or, you may be looking at someone who may have your child's organs. It makes me wonder if they can sense their loved ones spirit though only a small part of them exists in a new body... It also makes me wonder if I, as a transplant recipient, can live up to the expectations that a donor family may have. I know that people say that there are no expectations, but I doubt that they would want their loved one's organs to be used by someone who would abuse that second chance at life. Having met a few donor families makes me want to strive harder in pursuing my goals, not just for me personally, but for the person who gave his/her life so that I would no longer be a dialysis patient, so that I would have my own second chance. I feel that I am not only doing this for myself, I am doing this for the unknown person that is with me now, and that person's family.

It is amazing how certain events and experiences change your views about life and people. I have come into contact with the most amazing, nurturing, encouraging, and loving people in the past two years than I had met in my short lifetime. And we came together as a result of loss, loss of life and loss of health. It is amazing because there is no grief. There is only happiness. Happiness at the fact that certain decisions have given someone else a second chance at life. Happiness at the fact that someone made the decision so that you, as a patient, could live a more meaningful life. People have pleasantly surprised me (ok well some, there are those that I wouldn't trust if they had a handwritten letter from God, himself). Hopefully, I am doing justice to the donor whose family decided to donate his organs.