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Kassy Benson photographs an image of her mother, organ donor Ann Knight Anthony, during a ceremony at Mary Washington Hospital last night.
Judy Hampton places an ornament dedicated to her daughter on the Angel Tree remembering organ donors.
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Thirteen years ago, Gary Scheer was given three weeks to live.
Last night, the 26-year-old fire medic and distance runner from Spotsylvania County struggled to express his gratitude for the best gift that he ever received--the liver that made his appearance possible.
The difficulty was understandable, considering that his crowd at Mary Washington Hospital included more than 100 survivors of people whose deaths saved the lives of organ recipients like Scheer.
"It's so difficult to try and relate. How do you say thank you to someone on the other side?" Scheer said.
According to one mother from the other side, Scheer's presence at last night's celebration of life in the Mary Washington Hospital atrium was more than enough.
"He didn't even have to say anything. It's such a gift to just see him stand there and be healthy and happy," said Jan Broom, whose 23-year-old daughter, Shannon, became an organ donor in 1998.
Broom started the event in 2001 to help the families of those who made lifesaving contributions cope with grief during the holiday season.
"When your heart is broken, finding any way to celebrate the holidays is difficult," she said.
Dena Reynolds coordinates events for donor families through LifeNet Health, a nonprofit organization that facilitates organ and tissue donation at over 80 hospitals in Virginia. She said grieving families need to reach out to each other during the holiday season.
"It doesn't matter if their loved one died yesterday or 15 years ago," she said. "People need to know that they are not alone--especially during the holidays."
The celebration has evolved from a small outdoor service to a catered event with live music and an overhead slide show of donor pictures that rotates as their names are read off one-by-one.
"Donor families have been messaging each other back and forth on our message board about this all week," said Judy Hampton, a nurse in the hospital's pediatric unit who helped organize the event.
Hampton spent all day last Sunday, her daughter Terri's birthday, covering the hospital's Angel Tree with gold butterflies and white lights.
Last night, Hampton joined other families in placing more than 75 heart-shaped glass ornaments engraved with their loved ones' name on the 11-foot tree.
Hampton's heart belonged to Terri, who passed away in 2001 at the age of 25.
Hampton said Terri had wanted to go to Olive Garden in Central Park on her last birthday, so this year the whole family went.
"I felt so bad for the waitress. She asked what we were celebrating, and I just couldn't ," Hampton said. "We told her it was Teresa's birthday, that she wanted to be here but she just couldn't make it."
Some donor families could not make it to this year's remembrance celebration, but they were still represented on the Angel Tree, thanks to ICU nurse Amy Thorpe.
Dec. 4 will mark the 12th year since Thorpe's father became an organ donor. Thorpe calls it his heaven date, a habit she picked up from Jan Broom.
"Death date just sounds so bad," she said.
Thorpe said that she feels blessed to be a part of saving lives from both sides as an ICU nurse.
"You go from doing everything you can to save someone's life and just stop," Thorpe said.
"You look at the same person and say, 'He's gone, but he could still save lives.' Then you go back to work."
Katy Burnell: 540/374-5779| There are 2,553 Virginians waiting for organ transplants. For more information or to register as an organ donor, go to save7lives.org. |
