While most people are marking an anniversary this week for a memorable day eight years ago, the Craig (Lee) family is marking a different anniversary. For us, September 10, 2001 is a special day because that is the day that Tad donated his kidney to his father, John.
Coincidentally, the annual Donate Life barbecue is held around the time of this anniversary, so we typically spend the afternoon with a lot of other kidney recipient donors and recipients and their families, eating burgers and hot dogs and meeting one another.
Dr. William Bennett (above) updates us about the past year and distributes certificates to the people who've been part of the program the last year. We met a woman, Debbi, from Silverton, who received a kidney nine months ago from her son-in-law's father.
The boys' favorite part every year has got to be the gelato, donated by Alotto Gelato. Dr. Bennett explained that the proprietor had received a kidney from the program some years ago and while he didn't actually threaten his former patient, there was talk of coming back for the kidney if he didn't return with his much-appreciated gelato cart.
Each recipient/donor pair are given a number by the group. Tad and his dad's is 70-something. This year, they got up to the 700s. Remarkable. Each of those numbers comes with a story. Just about every story involves a dramatic change in someone's quality of life.
We use that phrase "You saved my life!" so often nowadays that it's almost meaningless, but in this case, every one of the recipients had their lives changed utterly for the better because of the amazing generosity of a donor.
It makes me very, very proud of my husband.
For a simple way to possibly make a huge difference, sign up to be a donor and make sure that your family is aware of your wishes.
(for a hard way to make a huge difference, donate a kidney to someone who needs it -- we all have a spare!)
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