It’s National Organ & Tissue Donation Awareness Month – and in that spirit, I’d like to share a song I love with you… Around two years ago – right around this time of year – I got a note from the lady who wrote the song, Deborah Lader… She asked if I liked the idea that we inspire art. I do…
The song is “Pass it on…” by the Sons of the Never Wrong. There’s a verse in the song that starts, “Here’s a whisper… And a didgeridoo…” Deb explained to me that the “whisper” is Kari – and the “didgeridoo” is my beautiful friend Lizzy, who was also a CF / double lung recipient and passed away while she was waiting for a second set of lungs… Lizzy introduced me to the Sons
A year or so later – they made this little music video above, and Deb asked me (and Kari) to make a few cameo appearances… I think it turned out very cool…
Eleven years ago today, Kari passed away… Eleven years ago tomorrow, my life changed in ways I’d never imagine possible… Still – eleven years later – I find myself amazed at how it feels to breathe like I breathe… These next few days I get to celebrate the eleven incredible years of life she’s given me – but it’s also a solemn time for me… I also mourn the loss of the incredible girl who gave these lungs to me – and for the family who lost that incredible girl.
Her smile is on my mind always… I have a number of pictures of her, including this fuzzy, photo-booth one of Kari with her friend Katie – I’m happy to call Katie one of my friends now… She gave this picture to me quite a while ago and it is one of my favorites…
In their first letter to me, her family explained how Kari spoke out about organ donation twice in the month before she passed away… Sometimes when I speak to people, I tell them that I don’t know what made Kari feel the way she felt about organ donation – I tell them I don’t know why someone so young could feel passionate about something like that… But I’m not sure that it’s true that I don’t know why… I’ve met Kari’s family – and I’ve met a whole bunch of her friends… I’ve hugged the people who surrounded her, and loved her – the people who I know she loved… They’ve told me wonderful, touching, funny and sometimes irreverent stories about her – and they’ve given me a picture of who she was. It’s only a little snapshot when compared to the people who knew her – but it’s enough to see that she was a good, good person. And that she cared about other people.
Today, there are flowers on Kari’s grave from me and Laura… A very special lady named Deb at Algona Greenhouses takes care of this for me – and she always takes a picture and mails it to me. She does beautiful work… All of us in this situation want to say thank-you... And we want to remember and honor the person and family who helped us... There seems to be so little we can do – we can't give the person back to their family, even though I think that a lot of us, after learning about them, would do so... I try to say thank-you in a lot of different ways. Every year Deb helps me say thank-you, and helps me remember her in a way that is very meaningful to me… What she does for me means a lot to me…
Thank you for being who you were, Kari.
