Okay, this post is not about me or mine. It's not about our family, our times, our lives. It's about a sweet little girl who is in the fight of her life.
The backstory: many, many moons ago, there was a guy that lived in Stephenville who was a friend from A&M of my dad's cousin. I didn't know this until much later, but he only lived in the 'ville for six months. He needed a job after college and my uncle Brad hooked him up. After a little while, he decided the 'ville wasn't the place for him and he moved on.
For whatever reason, his name always stuck with me: Frank Shannon. I don't know why. Some of you know I have a knack for remembering things that are either insignificant or shouldn't matter much. Well, Frank's name stuck in my head. I didn't have any contact with him, minus a few visits at Texas A&M, when Frank was the director at the 12th Man Foundation.
Flash forward to our time in Charleston. I learned that Frank lived in Charleston and not only did he live there, but he had been the head of fund-raising at The Citadel. I got in touch with him and he graciously agreed to meet me and my family for lunch. It was neat to visit with him; to talk about the people we had in common (my family and people from the 'ville) and for he and Jasen to talk about the people they knew at The Citadel.
Because of that meeting, we "friended" each other on Facebook. I friend almost everyone and I love to see what people are up to. The day we met Frank for lunch, he and his family were getting ready to move back to TX, where he would work at Baylor. I told him to tell Coach Briles hello!
A few months ago, I was sad to see a post from him via Facebook that his brand-new granddaughter, Clara, had been diagnosed with leukemia. I was immediately taken back to Germany, when a precious family in our small military community was affected by the same disease in their own newborn baby girl.
I have been able to keep up with sweet Clara through her mom's blog (www.brookebabble.blogspot.com). She recently had a bone marrow transplant and it's either going to work or it's not. Some kid (I think Brooke, Clara's mom, said he was under 25) was a match for Clara. How did they know he was a match? Because at some point he went and had his marrow tested. From what I understand, they can type your bone marrow pretty easily.
Which brought up the question within me: why have I not been tested? Why am I not making sure I am in the bone marrow "clearing house" for them to call me if someone needs my marrow? I've heard it's painful to donate and I guess that's why I haven't been willing to do it.
But when I go to Brooke's site and see pictures of Clara, I am confronted with the same question over and over. Why? Why, if it could save some other precious baby, child, mother, father, have I not been willing to do this? And I challenge you...can you not do this? Could the pain of donation be greater than the pain of losing someone you love?
Listen, I won't ask you if you will or have done the matching. I won't ask you to make a commitment. I will only ask you this: what if you were the missing link that could save Clara's life?
6 comments:
Let me know how and I will go do this myself. This is a great message, sweet sister!
Check out Be the Match, which may be the group you're looking into.
Way back in undergrad I joined the National Marrow Donor Program (what Be the Match used to be called, I see), but I've moved MANY times since then and haven't received any mail from them in years--I'm sure because I haven't updated my contact information. Thank you for reminding me about that, Sara !
My dad gave my Aunt is bone marrow as she got that awful leukimia usually only babies get. When you give or to get tested, they don't even drill into your hip anymore. He said the only painful thing is that you have to inject yourself in the tummy with something that makes your body think you are sick to produce enough stem cells, which is actually what they give them. Out of 5 brothers and sisters, they were the only two that are a match and she is now in remission...Whoop. good post. -Angela Thomas
Angela - that's great information. I went onto the Be the Match site and it is so confusing (at least to me). But I plan to do this.
Great post Sara. She what you can do with this blog?! AWESOME!
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