This is a picture of Megan and me at the U.S. Transplant Games in Madison, Wisconsin, this past August… We’re both enjoying Dippin’ Dots – the breakfast of champions…
Organ donation and transplant are precarious things… It’s a gift spawned from devastation – In someone’s death, life is given to others… Maybe a little like a phoenix, with life rising from the ashes… And the life that results from this incredible gift is often fragile. We recipients and our families and friends are thankful beyond measure for the extra time we are given… And we’re on toxic drugs that keep our immune systems from attacking the gift we were given – while taxing the rest of our body. Some of us live much longer than we ever expected. And some of us don’t get nearly as much time as would seem fair…
I lost a beautiful friend named Megan this week. I’ve posted about her in the past, here and here and here… Sometimes – OK, often – I’m a little disappointed in myself that I don’t spend more time with the people I love – with my friends… We get new lungs, go back to work, get involved with all manner of things – and life is moving at 100 miles per hour, and you hope that the people you love know that you love them…
Megan was transplanted a little over three years ago – she went into rejection over the past year or so, and she was not a candidate to be re-transplanted… A few weeks ago, she got sick enough to be placed on a ventilator – and she couldn’t be weaned off of it… This Monday, Megan chose to remove herself from the ventilator. I cannot imagine the level of strength and courage she had in her little body. The week before – she left a message on Facebook that she was upset… She was hurt because she found out that because of an unknown pathogen in her lungs – she would not qualify to be an organ donor when she passed away… She was upset because she would not be able to give gifts like those she was given… But she did give gifts – she gave hope and inspiration to so many people.
If you are one of Megan’s Facebook friends – you know the outpouring of love that Megan has experienced over these past few weeks. That outpouring of love was no less than the result of seeds that Megan has planted and watered over the years – now blooming for her.
I cannot imagine all she’s been through in her short life… She packed more pain in her 30-some years than 10 people pack in 100 years each… Yet, the spirit I saw was always joyful… She would always greet me with a beaming smile – then hit me and ask me why I hadn’t seen her in so long – then forgive me… I know that she would have liked to have known about the precious donor who gave her her new lungs – I have to believe that she’s with him or her right now… And I know whomever it was, they would be proud of what they’ve done for her – and what she’s done with the gift they gave her…
Megan didn’t deserve the problems she was born with – she didn’t deserve all she went through then, and now… She deserved so much more than three years with beautiful, new lungs… Life is kinda puzzling sometimes and what happened to our Megan was not fair. But life isn’t fair or unfair – life just is – life just happens… We’re all given a battle plan in life – and some of us seem to draw much more difficult assignments than others… But we all fight with the spirit we’re given – and I’ll always admire your spirit, Megan…
Along with so many of us – Megan got to attend the U.S. Transplant Games in Madison this year… I know how much she wanted to compete – she was already too compromised to do that… But if anyone should get a gold medal for cheering and spirit, on behalf of all of Team Illinois I would nominate Megan… At the opening ceremony, Megan and all of us listened to a beautiful lady named Holly who lost her infant son Jake, who became a donor. Holly sang a song from the musical Wicked…
It well may be, That we will never meet again
In this lifetime – So let me say before we part
So much of me, Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me – Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend…
Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a skybird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better…
Because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good.
I’ll never forget your smile and I’ll always love you, Megan… And I know that, because they knew you, many, many people on this planet have been changed for good.
