Once and Future Methodist

Wow.  It was a head spinning 4 days, going to and coming from St. Louis.  My time with Austin is so precious.  Seeing him at 6-12 month intervals, I see changes I might otherwise not notice if I were to see him daily.  His features are becoming more adult.  How much he will grow in the future is in question, but he is most assuredly becoming a young man.

It was nice to be the 3rd bannana at this year's event.  To see the other donors with their recipients and know that they and I shared the bond of these intense emotions is something special.  Every donor I know who has met their recipient has had similar feelings, hard to express to anyone who hasn't been there.

I made it a point to not have my camera with me all the time.  It was nice to just be with Austin.  We went swiming in the hotel pool along with Matt, Alex, and the Donors' kids.  Austin and I walked around the lake which is behind the hotel, skipping rocks, watching ducks land, and a family of geese sharing the pathway with us.

Yesterday morning Austin and I played a game of scrabble on the floor, after watching some Buggs Bunny cartoons whilst eating breakfast.  While Patti was getting her hair done and game face on we went out into the parking lot of the apt. complex and kicked a soccer ball around.  Not being a father, I've not experienced this on a regular basis.  It's pretty nice. 

I haven't stopped crying.  I've known Matt and Alex since I've known Austin, and to see them so full of life, so healthy, so normal (Matt & Austin had a pillow fight in my room this afternoon).  Their donors are so different, Annette, a country girl from North Carolina who donated to Matt and Katarina, from Sweden who was Alex's donor, but we all share a common bond.  Saving a life, long distance.  Got to run back to the festivities.

From L to R:  Annette, DannyG, Katarina...the 3 donors

The story of our first visit to St. Louis to meet Austin and his family, one year and two days after the marrow donation is quite a story in and of itself. I had to work the last of 7 12 hr night shifts on Wednesday night, come home and pack the Pathfinder, and haul (J) and myself 600 miles to the Northwest in order to be at Children’s Hospital in St. Louis for the Friday morning festivities. We had been on the road when we finally crested one last hill and saw the Gateway Arch in the last light of a setting sun. We wound our way into St. Louis proper and located Children’s hospital, so we knew where we were to be in the morning. Now, time to look for a hotel.

We're here.  After 12 hours of sitting in airports and dealing with delayed flights I made it to St. Louis about 2100 CDST last night.  After a quick dinner it was time to crash.  Austin and I are going to hit the hotel pool later today, then it will be time for the marrow drive and for the festivities.  I will live blog from the event as time allows!  (anybody know a free, downloadable photoediting program?  I don't have a fully capable editor on my laptop and that makes posting pix. difficult).  Also, Matt and Alex, whom we are with to celebrate their transplants, are featured on the NMDP website.  Check out their story at: http://www.marrow.org !!!

(J) and I spent yesterday running a marrow drive in conjunction with a blood drive at the Abbingdon, VA police dept.  The guest of honor was a local state trooper who was hit by a car last year, and needed 17 units of blood his first day in the hospital.  He is doing great, having moved from wheelchair to walker and soon to be down to just a cain.  Since our Marrow Coordinator is on leave, taking care of her husband who had a stroke 2 months ago, this drive was up to (J) and I. 

Usually I'm the only donor there, to tell about the experience of being a marrow donor.  Not so Tuesday!  We had Trish, an actress with the local theatre, who donated to TWO brothers back in 1996...just a few years after the marrow registry was founded.  (She made Redbook, and Ophra, back in the day!).  As a bonus, we also had Whitney, a 20 yr old young woman who is one year and one week post-transplant.  Her donor is from Germany.  Extra special bonus, Whitney was just accepted into Pharmacy school, so I'll be seeing her on clinical rotations in a few years.  The drive was great and there is already talk about doing it again next year.

This weekend I will be in Saint Louis with my recipient, Austin.  Two other children, a brother and sister, had the same orphan disease which aflicted Austin (Fanconi's Anemia).  They got their transplants over the last 3 years, and after rough patches are doing well.  Saturday they will meet their donors.  One is from North Carolina, the other is from Sweeden.  As the "donor emeritis" of the group I've been invited to join in the festivities.  There is going to be a marrow drive in conjunction with the events, so I'll be back in the saddle again! 

If you are in the St. Louis area, come out and get signed up.  If not in the area, check the papers or the NMDP website:( http://www.marrow.org ) for a drive near you.

Photo:  Trish, Whitney, and DannyG

This shouldn't be so unusual as to be newsworthy!

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/may/03/we-gather-together/

The school year is coming to a close.  The Prom is over.  Spring sports are heading off into the state tournaments.  Graduations will start in the next 3-4 weeks.  When we lived in Miami, thru the 4^th grade, school usually got out a little later, usually the 2^nd week in June.  We would then head north on our annual vacation, usually ending up in Vermont at my Aunt Mary’s.

            Mary was Mom’s oldest sister.  Dad and I would spend our week or so there fishing and tramping thru the North Woods, while Mom and Mary would visit friends and family.  I spent plenty of afternoons playing with my cousins in Mary’s big yard.  In the back there was a big pile of leaves and grass clippings where we hunted worms which would be our bait the next morning.  Then, there was the yard itself.  Our yard in Florida had come on a roll from some turf farm.  It was of pure culture, pampered, watered, fertilized, and boring.  Mary’s yard was full of interesting stuff.  The grass was what was there when the house was built, in the late 1800’s.  There was clover, pink and white, tiny white flowers, and big yellow flowers.  Dandelions!  I loved dandelions.

            I remember making Mom a bouquet of the bright yellow beauties when I was 5 or 6.  We always had one or two in a jelly jar vase on the kitchen windowsill.   But the favorite for my cousins and I was when the dandelions went to seed, forming perfect spheres of fuzzy white.  We would pick them ever so carefully so as not to dislodge a single seed, and either launch them into the air with a mighty puff or to take off running, leaving a stream of seeds on parachutes in our wakes.  In our fun we guaranteed the next generation of the bright yellow flowers.  This would not have been tolerated in the land of perfect lawns I knew in Florida.

            Today on my walk I saw the first generation of dandelions going to seed this year.  All along the pathway, where there had been no mowing, dandelions stood a foot tall or more in perfect spherical beauty, waiting a breeze, or delighted child to come along and launch the next generation into flight.  I still love dandelions.

From time to time I've posted links to articles about violence against the homless in central Florida, near to where (J) grew up and where we met.  Here is the latest, year end information.

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/frtHEAD03043008.htm

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/getinvolved/projects/hatecrimes/index.html

Churches are always looking for new funding streams to support missions, youth programs, etc. and today I had a briliant idea.  The inspiration came as I was walking down the hallway of our new education building to the stair well to head up to the 3rd floor classroom where the contemporary service is being held whilst the sanctuary is being renovated. John, our associate pastor and sometime blogger, was leading his youngest son to the nursery before he went off to conduct the traditional service this morning.  The little guy, about 3 now, was holding dad's hand with one hand and clutching a couple of WWF action figures in the other.  Typical boy that age, I though, thinking of Austin and my nephews. 

That's when I saw the light:  Methodist Action Figures!  Just think, the perfect way to start young, introducing our kids to the heroes of the faith!  We could start with a Founders series:  John and Charles Wesley and Bishop Asbury.  Afterwards perhaps a circuit rider series, followed by a missonary set.  And there are always accessories to go with  the original figures:  Horses, Methodist Meeting Houses, brush arbors, Vestments, riding dusters for the circuit riders (and winchesters, colts, camp-meeting tents, etc). 

I've done a quick google, and although I've found biblical action figures (Jesus, Moses, Daniel, etc) I've found no Protestant firgues represented.  That would offer another whole line in the future with Martin Luther, John Calvin and others. 

And for the older kids:  Bobbleheads!

Picture:  Moses Action Figure

Right out our back door, these flowers appear for a week, then are gone.  What a blessing.