Remembering the donors

5/25/2013

BY TK BARGER
BTLADE RELIGION EDITOR

REL life25p Jenny Herr, of Metamora, speaking about the liver that her daughter, Allison (cq) Herr, now 9, received. "When you wait for a year and nine months for that pager to go off [telling you the needed transplant is available], you give up hope" and prepare yourself to tell your little girl goodbye. The Guy Smith Gift of Life Memorial Bridge Donor Recognition and Appreciation ceremony in Toledo, Ohio on May 19, 2013.The event "recogniz[es] organ and tissue donors and their families", and was created by Rose and Otto Smith in honor of their son Guy Smith. The Blade/Jetta Fraser

The Blade/Jetta Fraser
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Allison Herr, 9, left, and her mother Jenny Herr, of Metamora, at a reception following the memorial service. Allison received a liver after being on the transplant waiting list for one year and nine months.

There was great and solemn appreciation for what was missing — and what continues — for 13 families visiting Mercy St. Vincent Hospital during a recent ceremony for organ donors.

They missed loved ones who had been patients at the hospital and have died. But they appreciated what goes on — not just the loved one’s memory, but the organs that became transplants for patients needing them or the body tissue used to make other people’s lives better.

Those 13 people are  among 47 who were re-membered Sunday as donors at the 13th annual Guy Smith Bridge of Life Memorial Donor Recognition and Appreciation. The hospital, Life Connection of Ohio, and Community Tissue Services were hosts of the event.

The chaplains of the hospital’s pastoral care department gave the ceremony a religious structure with readings, prayers, and a blessing. Mr. Smith’s

parents, Otto and Rose Smith, and his teenage niece Morgan Littin spoke about his life and the continuing work of the bridge the family began in his memory.

The bridge is not a physical structure, but is instead an educational and support system for families, a span in the process of donating and receiving organs and tissue. Morgan shared that her family now knows the process from both the donor and recipient sides because she has uncles who received organ donations.

Adult tissue recipient Bruce Joseph and 10-year-old liver recipient Allison Herr and her mother, Jenny Herr, said they have been blessed by others’ donations.

The mother and grandmother of Careta Rashon Grace, 31, were candle lighters. After the ceremony, Careta’s grandmother, Carolyn Grace-Howe, said, “It’s a good feeling to know that [Careta] made a responsible decision.... I thought I was finished crying, but the tears came all over again [in the ceremony]."

REL life25p Jenny Herr, of Metamora, speaking about the liver that her daughter, Allison (cq) Herr, now 9, received.

The family was told that Careta's donation helped two people, "so that made both our hearts feel good," Mrs. Grace-Howe said about herself and Careta’s mother, Sharhonda Grace.

Mary Flores, her daughter, son, and daughter-in-law came to the service to remember Albert A. Flores.

"It sure stirs up feelings but it's nice to know that he's remembered," Mrs. Flores, Albert's wife, said.

Albert was listed as a donor on his driver's license, and the family supported his wishes based on family experience because his brother received a liver transplant in 1994, Mrs. Flores said.

She said that because Albert died at home, his organs could not be donated, "but they were able to use his tissue and we knew that he would want to do that. He was a schoolteacher and he was always wanting to give and to teach."

Tissue recipient Mr. Joseph spoke about what it means to have rebuilt knee ligament from donor tissue, and how his 9-year-old son can root for him as Mr. Joseph plays sports.

Mrs. Herr spoke for Allison, but Allison added at the end that she received gold and silver medals at the 2012 Transplant Games of America in Grand Rapids, Mich.

REL life25p Rose, left, and Otto Smith lighting candles of remembrance for those who donated life to others. The Guy Smith Gift of Life Memorial Bridge Donor Recognition and Appreciation ceremony in Toledo, Ohio on May 19, 2013.The event "recogniz[es] organ and tissue donors and their families", and was created by Rose and Otto Smith in honor of their son Guy Smith. The Blade/Jetta Fraser

Guy Smith, 34 when he died in 1997, was a chef who worked on private yachts and he was a diving instructor. He became an organ donor after a traffic accident in Florida.

"I firmly believe in [organ and tissue donation]," his mother, Rose Smith, said after the recognition ceremony. "I didn't at first, when my son died." Her two other children told her that Guy wanted to be a donor. "He believed in it." So she supported Guy's wish.

Mrs. Smith said that notifying patients that a donation was available, by calls made while Guy was in an induced coma, "was such a beautiful process. I sat there in the room when [donation and medical officials] called the different recipients and their doctors. It was just mind-boggling how much it dovetails with all the different processes of the hospital."

Contact TK Barger @  tkbarger@theblade.com,  419-724-6278 or  on Twitter @TK_Barger.