Dear Gift of Hope Donor Family,

I have started writing this letter to you and your family many times over the course of the last nearly two years. It has been difficult for me to try to find the right words to thank you for saving my husband’s life at a time when your life was crumbling around you. Your decision to share the gift of life of your loved one was perhaps one of the most important and yet perhaps more difficult decisions you faced in November 2002. Please be assured that it was the right choice.

My husband (Bob) is a Vietnam Veteran who lost a leg during the war. It was during that surgery and a blood transfusion that he contracted Hepatitis C, known as the “silent epidemic”. I’ve enclosed an article Bob wrote about his experience that was published in Hepatitis Magazine. I hope that it will give you some insight into the incredible man you saved by making the decision to share the gift of life.

Bob appreciates every day and is working with several organizations to “give back” and bring awareness about the Gift of Hope, the American Liver Foundation, Hepatitis C, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and VietNow (a national Vietnam Veterans organization). We have recently founded an organization, “Forgotten Heroes”, and plan to work with disabled veterans at Hines VA Hospital in Chicago.

Bob and I would very much like to learn about the person that saved Bob’s life, giving us incredible hope for the future and encourage you to contact us.

My heartfelt and sincere gratitude to you and your family.

Sincerely,

Linda

To the recipients of my husband’s organs….

It has been two years since Jim died. My life has changed forever, as has yours. I have learned to cope with some of the many things I now have to do by myself. I hope you have learned to cope with the many new things you are now able to do with your family.

One thing I feel compelled to do is tell you a little about my husband. Jim and I met Christmas Eve 1969 on a blind date. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we were somehow meant for each other. They say opposites attract…Jim was from a small town in West Virginia – I was a city girl from Chicago. He had a brother and two sisters – I was an only child. His parents were hard-working people from a poverty-stricken area who put good home-grown food on the table, but little else. There were no birthday parties or Christmas toys. I too had hard working parents, but parents who were able to afford just about anything I wanted. Jim was an extrovert – I was shy.

We were married in 1971. We were married 31 years. Life was good to us. We lived in the south suburbs of Chicago and Jim worked as a mechanical engineer. I was a banker. Our daughter was born in 1977. Life became even better. Jim was a doting father to his little girl. That little girl is now a teacher.

In 1994 Jim opened his own business. I am running that business now. Nothing to do with engineering. Jim and I were both part of the great corporate down-sizing that took place in the 90’s. While Jim was a manager and travelled all over the world for the major company he worked for, he knew at 52 he was no longer going to be able to compete in the engineering field with the younger college graduates. In stead, he felt the service industry held a world of potential. And he was right. We started a small commercial maintenance company that now employs 12 people.

Jim and I were able to give our daughter a college education, buy our “dream home”, travel, and have some of the nicer things life had to offer. During those years Jim became a collector of many things…model railroad trains, die-cast cars, 50’s memorabilia, especially from Route 66. Those were the “toys” he never had as a child.

Jim was a friend and a lover. He was truly a romantic, and the most sentimental man I have ever known. He loved me and his family with a passion seldom seen these days. He was a big, tall, strong man who was not ashamed to cry. He was respected and loved by many. I didn’t even realize how much until his wake when hundreds of people stood in line for up to an hour to say good-bye.

Jim was killed in a senseless accident. While we had never talked about organ donation, I felt it was the right thing to do. To try and make some sense out of his death. He had been a blood donor as a young man. And as Jim got older he used to say that he had everything in life he could possibly want and that it was now his turn to give back. Organ donation was my way of giving back from Jim.

I have many questions about Jim’s death and why he had to die, but I also believe that God has a master plan. I do not know the reason and I never will. I guess that’s what faith is. That and knowing in so may ways Jim is still with me.

My husband was a man who lived hard and died hard. He lived life to the fullest – on his own terms. My only regret is that we didn’t have more time together. I wouldn’t change one moment of the years we had. He would want you to live your life to the fullest too. Cherish God’s and Jim’s gift to you.

I wish I had written this letter sooner, for Jim’s sake and for mine. If you would like to communicate, please do. Jim and I both wish you a long and happy life.

Sincerely,

Holly

June 29, 2005

Dear Holly,

It seems that I have read your letter 20 or 30 times. I’m not sure what happened, but the letter that I sent to you last summer apparently never made it to you and your family. Before I tell you about the many similarities of the Jim and Holly and Bob and Linda story, I would very much like you to put down this letter and read the letter (and story) that you were meant to receive a year ago. Really – please read it now – I’ll wait for you here…

Amazing isn’t it? Someone as caring and sensitive as your Jim would save someone as amazing as my Bob? While I’m not a tremendously religious person, I too am a true believer in God’s master plan. As you read, Bob is a veteran. The day of his transplant happened to be November 11th – Veteran’s Day. The call came at 11:00 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month. Bob was so sick that he had only been on the transplant list for 11 days. The surgery began at 11:00 p.m. Bob’s recovery was amazing, and he was only in the hospital for 11 days. To make 11 seem more like our lucky number, my birthday is July 11th! Wouldn’t surprise me if one of your birthdays or your anniversary were on an 11.

There are other things – Jim was an engineer…Bob was an engineer. It may seem insignificant, but I noticed that your paper was clouds and rainbows – I collect rainbow things, and my nickname used to be Rainbow.

One thing you really need to know is how Bob changed after the transplant. He really became more caring, more sensitive, and his appreciation for life just soared. While we knew that it was mostly because he had been given a new life, we suspected that his liver may have come from a woman. I don’t want to seem like I’m making light of the situation, because Bob had always been a nice man. But I truly think that Jim’s “influence” made him even more sentimental and caring. Then there’s the Route 66 stuff we’ve followed that trail several times, and Bob’s dad is a BIG railroad buff.

I guess I could go on and on, but then there would be nothing left for our next letters. While I’m not sure what our next step is supposed to be, Bob and I would both love to meet you and learn more about the angels that save our lives by truly giving us the gift of life.

Sincerely,

Linda

August 2005

Dear Bob and Linda,

I was very surprised to receive your “second” letter. No, I never received the first one. I have to admit I was disappointed when my letters to the recipients were not acknowledged, but I was prepared to accept anonymity if that was your choice. I still felt compelled to tell you about Jim, even if you didn’t want to tell me about yourself. But I so wanted to know that you were well and happy. Knowing just that would have been enough.

But to hear your plans to help other veterans makes our correspondence so very special to me. You see, it’s very easy to want to justify the decision to donate. No one wants to think their loved one died in vain. Jim was the victim of a senseless accident, and because of that, I had to feel like his death had some greater meaning. I wanted to think that Jim’s recipient would go on to cure cancer, famine, and finally world peace. And if not you, then surely one of your children.

In the years since Jim died, I have come to realize that all I really want is to know that you are well and happy. That you have chosen to use your gift to give to others is truly wonderful, but you sound like a man who earned the chance to keep living. You have already paid your dues Bob. Enjoy your life and your wife and family. I can tell from Linda’s letter how much she loves you.

Maybe someday our paths will cross, but not yet. Until that time comes, I will always answer your letters should you choose to continue to correspond…and maybe tell you a little more about my very special man. I have informed the staff at Gift of Hope that they may give you my name and address should you wish to correspond directly.

Sincerely,

Holly

P.S. Jim was in the Army too and went through Basic at Fort Jackson in the early 60’s. He served during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He never went overseas, though he was stationed at a Nike base in Wilmington, Ohio.