Blog

Wednesday, the 27th, is the one year anniversary of losing my mom. It’s been a rough year for our family, but we’ve made it through. I’m no longer crying regularly…so that’s an improvement, right? Mom was only 65 when she died and had been facing terminal cancer for more than 5 years. Yet up until the last 6 months or so, when she started truly dying, she did her best to live as full a life as she could.

Last November 16th, I donated hematopoetic stem cells (the stem cells that form bone marrow–adult stem cells) to a man with MDS whose best chance of surviving was a stem cell transplant. I can’t believe it’s been a whole year now. Last I heard from the program, he was still alive. Now that it’s been a year, I have a chance of learning his name, maybe even meeting him! Back in college, the National Marrow Donor Program did a drive on campus.

On Sunday afternoon, I got out of the shower to find Micah waiting for me. “Your dad called,” he said, “It sounds important. Call him back.” When I called my dad, he told me that the nurses said I should come home. They thought Mom had days, it was possible she had a week or two, but I should probably come home now. Fortunately, I’d saved up leave time and I’d talked to my bosses about the possibility that I might be called away suddenly.