A Letter for My Birthday

This arrived today:

January 2008

To my donor family,

At the beginning of this New Year and after a very meaningful Christmas holiday, I want to convey my sincere gratitude for the gift of life and the promise of tomorrow that you have given me.

I am a sixty year old man and live in San Ramon with my wife of twenty-seven years. I have been in real estate development and facilities management with the same company for twenty years. I enjoy sports, playing golf, cooking and gardening, reading, and going to the beach. We have one son who is married and lives nearby. They are expecting their first child in February. When they announced the news on Father's Day, I prayed that I would live to see my first grandchild born.

I was diagnosed with liver cancer in the spring of 2006 and accepted into the transplant program in September of that year at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. At that time the tumor was two centimeters in size. With constant testing and monitoring throughout the following months, I was moved up on the wait list with the hope of finding a donor before the tumor could spread or grow beyond the acceptable transplant guidelines.

As fate would have it, the phone call came in the afternoon of July 7 when I was notified that a potential donor organ was available for me. I accepted and my surgery was performed in the early hours of July 8 with no complications. My wife has been instrumental in my recovery by taking care of me every step of the way and insuring that my newly transplanted liver succeeds.

I know that my circumstances cannot change your loss but I hope that sharing my story brings you some comfort and peace. My family and I will forever be thankful to you.

God Bless you