“ Are you crazy?” asked a friend.
“I will light a candle for you at Mass,” said my mother.
“Your grandfather died of kidney disease at age 35,” a disapproving relative said—even though neither my father nor I had kidney disease.
I had just told them that, after careful review of all the evidence about its safety, I was applying to be a living kidney donor—a nondirected donor, to whomever needed and matched it.
The idea of my being a living kidney donor first came to me on December 6, 2007, while telling someone that Penny Carol, a Lummi Indian patient I had cared for who had donated a kidney to her sister in 1985, “was an example for American Indian people.” I had said that before, but I finally connected the dots that day: she was an example for me too.