Wall of Hero’s

I was invited to an Open House dedication ceremony for the Wall of Hero’s at North Memorial Medical Center the other day because my mom was a donor. It’s a wall filled with photos of people who have donated organs, tissue or eyes either to recipients or medical science. There were 122 5-by-7 photos and I’m sure there are many more who don’t have their picture on the wall for whatever reason.

There was a slide show during the open house of these photos and as the slide show progressed and showed each image I was very sad to see so many young people who have died. By the end of the slideshow I was overwhelmed with gratitude that these people both young and old would choose to give something of them so someone else could live or medical science could advance; which impacts hundreds or thousands of people. In a way the donors will live on by doing so, a piece of them lives on through and in someone else; I was overwhelmed with thankfulness that they would choose to do this. I thought about how many of these photos represented a life saved.

Something that started being sad turned out to be a very joyful thing.