Day four

Dear Friends,
It's a dialysis day. Yesterday's treatments were better, but administrative snafus still slowed everything down. MWF are long days.

Molly and me

I'm sure many of you are wondering about my benefactor, Molly McClintock. I met Molly at the Christmas store, a charity that I have been associated with for a few years. I was introduced to the Christmas store by my flute teacher, Vicki Scarratt, and originally worked in the food department, sorting and bagging canned food. I think Molly (head of eligibility) wanted more men to work on the eligibility team, so she drafted Diego Troya and me. Diego is bilingual, which is useful to her. (Partly why Diego and I decided to volunteer at the Store was to meet women; almost all of the volunteers are women. In fact, that is where we met Carrie Brill)_

So basically, Molly and I work together for about 10 days a year, providing Christmas presents, new clothes and food for underprivileged children and senior and disabled adults in Montgomery county. Traditionally, Diego and I are in charge on the last day that the store is open each year, so I guess she trusts us. Yet, I'm not sure you would say that Molly and I would have been considered good friends before she offered this most amazing gift: for instance, prior to a few weeks ago, she had never been to my house for dinner and as anyone who knows me well knows, all of my friends eat at my house.

One day, about 8 months ago, Diego and I met Molly and her partner, Irene, outside of the Lyric Theater, the local indie movie house in Blacksburg and she kindly asked me how I was. I mentioned that I needed a kidney and she, without hesitating, said, "you can have one of mine." As it turns out, we are not a perfect match (her blood type is A2 and mine is O), but the match is apparently good enough, and the doctors can do amazing things with non-ABO matched donors.

She passed all of the health tests and I am going to be getting her left kidney. I will then have three kidneys, hence the name of the blog.

Coincidentally, we were born only a few days apart (though thousands of miles). She is a semi-retired industrial safety professional and full time philanthropist and she is giving me the most unbelievable gift. I look forward to introducing her to many of you.