“My partner and I were looking to foster a child, so we decided to attend some parenting courses. There were about five different couples in the class. And we were doing this ‘ice breaker’ thing, where everyone shared their reason for wanting to become a foster parent. When it came around to one guy, he sort of shrugged, and said: ‘We already have three kids, but there’s an extra seat in our minivan.’ Everyone started laughing. The whole room relaxed. And that’s my first memory of Larkin. He was attending the class with his wife Katie, and I was drawn to them immediately. They were just such obviously good people. We started eating lunch with them on our breaks. We’d visit them on weekends. One Halloween we were trick-or-treating with their kids, and Larkin sat me down on a stoop, and asked why we hadn’t fostered yet. That’s when I told him about my health problems. My mother had given me a kidney transplant fifteen years earlier, and it was beginning to fail. I was on heavy dialysis. I needed blood transfusions. Soon I would need another kidney, but I couldn’t find a match. I never asked him. I’d never do that to someone. But the next day Larkin called me and told me he wanted to be tested. It was a miracle. We were a perfect match. We went through months of preparation. But four days away from the surgery, my blood test showed an abnormality, and we were suddenly unmatched. It was devastating. I felt like giving up, but Larkin kept pressing me to consider a paired donation. He offered to donate his kidney to an absolute stranger, if the hospital would find me a match. And they did. Larkin gave his kidney to a woman, and I received one from her husband. I was forever changed by this man. Larkin is someone who truly lives his life for other people. Not only did he give me the gift of life. But he’s shown me what it means to be a human on this earth.”
#quarantinestories
hawberries
