Give The Gift Of Love At The DMV…

This morning, Kidd and the rest of the show were talking about a former Kidd's Kidd, Marcos Saldana, who recently received a double lung transplant. It's a true miracle that he may be ready to leave the hospital this Sunday. Kidd said words that really stuck with me... 'The organ donor's family doesn't know it, but they went to a person who's going to do things in life. They went to a good person.' Obviously, doctor's can't decided who get's a transplant or not based on their own morality, but it really stuck. Being an organ donor is a supreme act of love. You don't know who's going to to benefit. To be so giving in a time of tragedy takes a strong person indeed. What a lot of people don't think of, is that for Marcos to get the life saving lungs he needed, someone had to die. That's heavy. And what a lot of people don't know, is that I'm closely acquainted with this. You see, my father was a transplant recipient. He received a heart transplant while I was in high school. You have no idea what an impact someone making that loving gesture can make in the lives of so many other people. My father was dying. He had his first heart attack when I was eight. He retired medically from the Air Force after 22 years as a Lt. Colonel. I have few childhood memories that don't involve my father being sick or in the

hospital. We moved from here (Haughton) the Summer before my Junior year to Ohio because our area simply didn't have the medical facilities (at the time) to keep  him alive. He was spending most of his time at Wilford Hall Medical Center (AFB) in San Antonio. My brother was out of school and living his life. My mom couldn't leave my dad or me alone. We didn't have family here. We were military. My mother's parents were in Ohio. My father's parents had long passed. It was the only option. So, we moved. It was hard. I'm not going to lie. The move took a tremendous physical tole on my father. He literally spent that Summer at St. Elizabeth's in Dayton, while I lived with my grandparents, kicking around their farm trying to make the cultural adjustment from mid South Shreveport to an extremely rural mid Western area. It wasn't looking good. Then a miracle happened. There was a fairly new transplant program at IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis). After a long hard road, my father qualified for the program and within days, a heart was found. For those knowledgeable about these things, they would know in our situation, it was a true miracle. In addition to blood type, etc... the organ has to be of a matching body size to be able to handle the body mass, etc...  It was truly the best present a girl could ever ask for. Thanks to the selflessness of another and their family, I got 16 more years with my father. As many of you know, he almost made it to walk me down the aisle. God love him, he finished just short of the finish line, but he tried... God, how he tried. So, thank you. God is good. Thank you to that nameless donor. Thank you to their family. Thank you for the memories you have given me and my family through your generosity. Thank you for letting my daddy be there at my high school graduation, my college graduation, for being able to be around to hear me on the air, for giving him the chance to meet countless boyfriends and finally meet and bless my husband. And, of course, to kick my butt when I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing... Which I wasn't... A lot! But we won't get into that right now. So, in closing, this wasn't for me to spill my grief all of over the pages of K945, it was for you to think twice next time you step up to the counter at the DMV. Check the organ donor box. You'll be gone someday. We all will.  Don't be stingy, give the gift of love. I am.