While shopping for some new pedals and shoes for my son this weekend, we started talking with the helpful sales rep. We learned first that his wife is an expert mountain bike racer and that she wears custom fit, foam padded and heat shaped $300 shoes.
Those are not the shoes we were looking for.
We learned too that he is “semi-retired” as a mountain bike racer. He looked of an age to be semi-retired but his active status had nothing to do with age. The man has no kidneys.
You couldn’t tell by looking at him. He didn’t’ have much hair; that you could tell. And he had a good looking goatee. But the kidney vacuum was a secret, until we pressed him about why he had given up the downhill thrill.
Turns out he had a disease that swelled his kidneys to 15-pound masses of pulp and polyp ridden mess. Now thrice weekly dialysis keeps him alive until he can float to the top of kidney recipient lists at Duke Hospital or in Charlotte. He’ll go with the first one, of course, and thinks his chances will be quicker in Charlotte.
We talked further about hoping he stays healthy in the interim and our good wishes for finding a compatible organ. “We’re praying for it,” he said.
On our way out I found a quiet moment to tell him I would pray with him about finding a kidney in time. A shared request and promise to pray establishes a relationship on a different level among men who basically are strangers.
This morning as I kept that promise, I was struck not only with the obvious good an answered prayer will have on the life of my new friend, but also with a sudden, gripping realization of the circumstance that will eventually provide him a new kidney.
I prayed for the donor.
Somewhere lives and breathes, walks and talks, loves and lives a man or woman who does not suspect that life is about to end. For my friend to experience triumph, this unknown person and his or her family must travel through tragedy.
Although they’ve never met, the lives of donor and recipient are slowly, irresistibly wending their way toward each other. One hospital waiting room will crackle with excitement, every spark of smile ignite fires of joy.
The other hospital waiting room will be filled with tears, hope, anxiety; all eyes on the door waiting for a doctor with a surgical mask around the neck to bring them good news that their friend, father/mother/husband/wife/brother/sister/son/daughter is going to make it. Every tear the first drop in a flood.
I prayed for my friend.