Life is a Precious Gift

Before I begin, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for all the love, support and understanding that my family and I have received over the last few days, months and year.  Losing a loved one is never easy, but to lose them suddenly and without warning is a difficult thing to wrap your mind around.  There are still days where I know we all find it hard to believe.  My dad was an extremely happy go-lucky man, with an infectious smile and positive nature.  While I know our time together was cut too short, he would expect nothing less of us than to go on and live life to the absolute fullest.  So even on our roughest days, it's that knowledge, along with our amazing support network (like a simple daily text of a purple heart) that have kept us going these last 12 months.  We truly cannot thank you enough!

Dad was an extremely humble and generous man.  He believed in helping others in anyway he could.  He donated blood on a regular basis ... we always joked with him that he just did it for the cookies that they gave afterward, but we knew it was something that he felt very strongly about and continued up until the end.  Last year, he reached the amazing milestone of just under 15 gallons of blood donated during his 217 visits.  I learned from the Red Cross that each time he donated it saved at least 3 lives.  :)  

Dad was also an organ donor.  This should come as no surprise considering the above paragraph.  Lots of people are organ donors.  :)  But if you're like me, you really didn't think about the magnitude of what that actually means when they ask you at the DMV to check that little box.  Of course, you want to be able to help someone in need, but at that moment when they were asking me, I know I wasn't processing the importance of what I was signing up to do.  Until now....

When Dad passed, they took him to a hospital in Atlanta where they went through the surgical process of determining which organs, tissues, etc. that were viable to help save someone's life.  For some this may sound, morbid or even disrespectful but consider the thousands of families whose loved ones are just waiting on a list, hoping to receive a call that their prayers have been answered and a new heart has become available.  

My dad was an avid runner most of his life, he took great care of himself and made sure to take his vitamins everyday.  :)  But you don't always think of those things when you are grieving a loss.  It wasn't until my mom received the letter from the Organ Donation Network, that we realized that while he may have had a stroke ... the rest of his body was in amazing health.  He was able to help over 28 people!  In reading through the list, it appears the only major organ not viable was obviously his brain.  I won't go into great detail of everything else that they were able to use, but the Network stated that he was one of the healthiest people they had ever seen!  So even though we are grieving his loss, there are 28 people out there that are happy for having received a gift like no other.  

Now I realize that not everyone feels comfortable with the idea of organ donation and I respect that.  It's a personal choice that only you can make.  However I do encourage you to do some research and become more informed.  We as a family have learned a lot from this experience.  I know, for me, it has brought a greater understanding of what the phrase "the gift of life" actually means.  And simply putting an X in that box at the DMV means way more than just an X .... it's a privilege.  My dad was a remarkable human being, a kind and generous man... always thinking of others.  We couldn't be more proud of him and the amazing gift that he gave to those 28+ people ... Life.

XOXO
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