It all starts with donors, and with donor families… But sometimes donor families do not realize they are donor families until they meet one of these precious people… Someone has to tell them about the opportunity to save another life when they’ve just lost someone they love… Someone has to help them give a gift, if they choose to do so… And then another someone, sometimes on very short notice, has to rush out and collect that gift to deliver it to the life, or lives that family will save…
Eve Wenger works for Iowa Donor Network – she works where my precious lungs came from… The past three years she’s driven hours and hours from Northern Iowa to Chicago to climb with me. Three years ago she came with two other Iowa Donor Network staff, Julie and Sarah – and Eve has come every time since. She’s probably going to smack me for using this picture – it’s from the 94th floor after she came out of the stairwell… I’ll get yelled at for using a picture of her sweating. But I don’t think she’s sweating – I think she’s glistening… Eve has been at a number of gatherings where I’ve spoken – seeing her smile always warms my heart.
Jennifer Johnson has climbed with me a number of times, at a number of buildings as well as at the Hustle before. I can’t believe that I can’t find a picture of her sweating too – but I can’t. This is a picture of Jen and a coworker from Loyola, Cassie – Jen is on the right. Jen is a heart/lung transplant procurement coordinator for Loyola, where Kari’s beautiful lungs were delivered to me.
Jen is a powerful climber – she’s awesome, and she makes it to the top quickly – at her last Hustle she did 94 floors in 20:22... A few years ago I was complimenting her on her speed. She told me that she likes to climb to the top as fast as she possibly can so that when she gets to the top she's gasping for breath... And in those few minutes when she's struggling for breath and trying to get her breathing under control – only for a few minutes – she can understand how her patients feel every day... She can appreciate, if only for a few moments, what it's like waiting for lungs...
Is that not beautiful?!?! She delivered the new lungs of one of my other teammates, Megan. It's enough that she helps save lives like Megan's and mine and so many others – but wanting a taste of how we struggle, and making it more meaningful for her, is one of the things that makes Jen so special to me...
Susan McNicholas runs a wonderful blog about organ donation called donorcycle. She’s funny, and she’s serious, and she’s made me cry a half-dozen times, and laugh a dozen times with some of the posts she’s written. She was a TC – a transplant coordinator who deals with organ recovery. Susan did in New Jersey what Eve does in Iowa. In her spare time she writes a well-read blog about a number of aspects of organ donation and transplant – which is how I found her.
I’d commented on a number of her posts that I found moving. Or I just commented to say hi. She’s referenced a number of our Revive Hope posts and she put us on her blog listing. In the not-to-distant past, she has temporarily moved away from the TC side of life to spend more time with her Pooter and her family. Look at this smile – how could you not want to spend more time with her?!?!
Imagine my surprise when she told me that she wanted to join my Hustle team and climb for Kari!!! She’s flying out from freakin’ New Jersey just to climb with me!!! The other day, Susan wrote a beautiful post on her blog about coming out to climb with me…
I do this climb to honor Kari. And to honor her Mom and her Dad and her Sister – and all of the friends who surrounded her and loved her... But I also do this to honor the people who carried me to her door – and the people who carried her gift to me.
Can you imagine what it feels like to have some of these messengers of life on my team and climbing next to me? OK, way ahead of me but in the same building? After having so many of them involved in saving my life – and involved in saving so many lives – can you imagine what it feels like to give them a hug? Glistening or not?
I’m so honored to have them on my team.
Here are links to the Hustle pages for Eve Wenger, Jennifer Johnson and Susan McNicholas. And mine… And here is my little website about Kari and our climbs…
p.s. I love you Michele & Penny (my personal procurement coordinators...)
