Post by tonilous on Jun 15, 2014 15:38:33 GMT -5
Hi again, I'm tonilous!
This is yet another story that I had in mind that I just had to write. I really hope you enjoy this one because it has been in my mind for a while now.
Let me know what you think!
"I'm sorry; there was nothing we could do."
Lena sat at her desk, staring at the computer screen. She had just Google searched her mother's name, scrolling down past the articles about her death from many, many years ago.
She had read all of the articles so many times, seeing the photos of the crash in the side columns of said articles, that it didn't even phase her anymore.
She had been surprised the first time she looked her up, not expecting anyone to take those old articles and put them onto the computer but she was glad they were there. Every time she missed her, in some sort of odd way, reading these articles helped her... but today, she wasn't going to read them again. She was looking for something different.
Unable to find what she was looking for, she went back up to the search bar and added "donor" to her name, then clicked 'enter'.
Links popped up once again, but this time there was a new one. She clicked on it to find it was a paper from a small town in Dublin - Creation was the name - that Lena had never heard of... She decided now wasn't the time to make a snarky comment about the name.
The article was about a man, John Davies, who needed a liver transplant. He was about to give up on ever getting one, figuring he was just going to die... there was no other option.
Then, one day, he got a call. He had to get to the hospital immediately.
He didn't even ask questions, he just went. He was quickly taken back and into surgery. Everything happened so fast that he wasn't even sure what was fully going on until he woke back up.
Yes, he had been told, in full, what was happening before being put under the anesthesia and was allowed to decline if he wanted "but seriously, who would decline to live?", John was quoted saying.
Lena continued reading, seeing where John had desperately wanted to know whose liver he had received. His doctor told him a name, Margaret Callahan, but that was it.
The man went on, saying how he wished he could thank Margaret's family. He sometimes feels awful that another person had to die so he could live, but he says, "I will be eternally grateful for Margaret and her family, for giving me another chance at live."
Tears were pooled in Lena's eyes. She finished reading the article and saw a picture of a man with his two grandkids. After staring at it for a couple of minutes, she went hack to Google's main page and typed in the man's name along with the city he was from.
The article popped up again... and underneath it, his obituary.
Lena's heart sunk. She clicked on it, hoping it was a different John Davies from Creation.
It wasn't.
The same picture of him with his grandkids was on the obituary, and written underneath was a short biography about his life, including the liver transplant. Whoever wrote it, said that they were happy for the four extra years they were given with John. They would be forever thankful for his organ donor and they know that the two have met in heaven now, because that was John's wish. That he could meet the woman who saved his life.
Lena finished reading the obituary, a single tear slipping down her face in the process.
While she was upset that John had died, she couldn't help but by happy, too. The Davies family seemed like amazing people and she was so proud her mom helped them. A man got to watch his grandkids grow up four more years because of her mom... That was something to be happy about..
Lena couldn't believe how well the search had gone so far. She had found one of three people who had received an organ from her mom.
She could mark liver off the list now.
That left the eyes and heart.
She searched her mom's name again, with the word "donor" added on, just like before, but this time she came up empty.
"Lena, dinner!" Her dad called to her.
She sighed. "Coming."
-8-
Two weeks later and nothing. She hadn't found anything else about her mom or who received her organs.
She knew she couldn't do intense research on this... Her dad wasn't even really comfortable with her looking this up (which was the reason she hadn't told him about John yet), so she knew her computer was to be her only source of information for the time being.
-8-
Another week later, Lena couldn't keep it anymore. After dinner, while Caragh and Julian were sitting on the couch watching the news, Lena sat down in her dad's recliner.
Julian automatically knew something was up. "What's wrong, Lena?"
Lena turned her head from the television and looked at her dad. "Don't get mad."
Julian turned off the television. "Lena," he said in a warning tone.
"I - I found the person who got mom's liver... three weeks ago."
She was met with silence. Caragh just looked at Julian, waiting for his reply. Lena was doing the same thing, except her heart was pounding.
"Three weeks ago?" Julian questioned, his voice calm.
Lena nodded. "I know you didn't really want me looking anything up about it until I'm eighteen, but I couldn't wait. I found an article about him... He - He's dead now. I found his obituary, too, but I just... I just didn't want to keep it from you."
Julian sighed... a very, very long sigh.
He looked over at Caragh, who just nodded, then he got up and headed up the stairs.
"Wh - Where's he going?" Lena asked, afraid her dad was too upset to stay in the room.
"He'll be back," Caragh assured her.
They sat in silence the rest of the time while they waited.
Sure enough, as Caragh had said, her dad came back, this time carrying a manila envelope in his hands. He sat back down on the couch and stared down at the envelope, then handed it to Lena.
"What's this?" Lena asked.
"A long time ago, right after your mom died, I wanted to know who was getting her organs. I asked around, trying to find out how I could get the information, and finally someone told me that they could get the information for me.
They worked on it for a long time, until they found the people. They said they wouldn't force them to contact me, but, if they wanted to, I'd probably get a letter from them soon. Almost eight months later, I got the note in the mail. I opened it. It was from the man who received her liver.
I read it... and it was like it opened all of my still-healing wounds and poured salt into them. I was a mess for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't stop reading it... until I forced myself to. I stuck it in this envelope and left it there.
Then, three months later, I got another letter. This one had a..." Julian paused, clearing his throat. "It had a heart drawn on the back of the envelope and I... I knew what was inside and - and I couldn't. I couldn't open it. I just stuck it in the envelope with the other letter, sealed the envelope, and never looked at it again."
Lena looked down at the envelope. Suddenly it felt so heavy. Like it carried a tone of weight with it. "You're - you're letting me have it?"
"I didn't want to give it to you until you were eighteen, but I don't think you're going to let this go until you get more answers, so here they are. You'll be eighteen in six months anyway; this is close enough."
Lena took a deep breath. She got up, envelope in one hand, and hugged her dad. "Thank you," she said to him. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, Lena."
After she finished her hug with her dad, she hugged Caragh. She wasn't sure why, but it just felt necessary. "I'm going to take this upstairs," she said after her hug with Caragh.
She got halfway up the stairs when her dad called out to her. "Lena?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't let it reopen the wounds," he told her, staring straight into her eyes. "Don't let it pull you back, okay?"
Lena nodded slowly. "Okay, dad."
-8-
Once Lena was back in her room, with her door shut and locked - she just couldn't deal with Michael barging in right now - she set the envelope on the bed and stared at it.
It was almost like it was some live animal, or maybe this big ball of energy that, if she touched it, it would electrocute her. She paced. Back and forth, back and forth.
She wasn't sure exactly why she felt this way. Three weeks ago, when she found John, it wasn't like this. Yes, she had had been obsessing about finding the other people since then, but it hadn't reopened the wounds... had it?
It was just something in her dad's eyes when she talked to him. Something in the way he said, "don't let it put you back." He was speaking from experience, that much was certain, but that wouldn't happen with Lena, would it? It had been nine years since her mom died, that was long enough to not get too emotional over this... right?
Lena stopped pacing, put her hands on her hips, and glared at the envelope. "Just do it, Lena! This is what you want."
And with that, she picked up the envelope, opened it, and pulled out the first letter.
It was the one from John.
She opened the envelope it came in, which had already been unsealed by her dad, and read:
Dear Callahan family,
I am so glad to be able to write to you. Firstly, I want to thank you for everything. I know it must be hard to be without Margaret but, in her death, she gave me life and I will be eternally grateful for that.
Lena smiled, remembering he said the same thing in the article that she had read, then continued reading.
I know nothing I say will take away the pain of losing her, but just know that you did not lose all of her. I am not talking about the fact that I, and hopefully many others, have a piece of her with us now, but I am talking about the fact that her spirit will be with you forever.
I know I don't know anything about her, or any of you, but I have a feeling that she was a great woman.
There are so many things I want to say to you, but I will keep it short for now. I hope we get to talk more in the future and, maybe one day, meet in person.
Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
John Davies
Lena was sitting on her bed by the time she got to the end of the letter. She had a feeling that she would have liked John. He seemed like a very grandpa-ish type. She wished she could have gotten the chance to know him.
She read over the letter twice more before setting it down beside her on the bed.
She picked the manila envelope up again, pulling the other letter out. This one had a heart drawn on the back, just like her father had said. She knew that meant that, whoever sent this note, got her mom's heart... and that just made her own heart race.
She opened the envelope, not even thinking to look at the address and name on the front first. Her eyebrows furrowed when she caught sight of the paper inside the envelope.
Construction paper, to be exact.
Pink construction paper, to be even more exact.
On the front of the handmade card was a giant, red heart that covered most of the page. She slowly opened the card, expecting it to be some sort of horrible joke when she saw the whole thing written with a mix of blue, green, and orange colored pencils, then she began to read.
Hello Callahans. My mommy told me that your wife and mommy gave me a new heart. I know you are sad that you lost her, but I am so happy with my heart. I have to take medicine every day to make sure the heart stays safe, but I don't mind. Since I know you miss her heart, I wanted to give you this one.
Drawn underneath was another huge heart, but this time little tiny hearts were drawn inside of it. Each one a different color.
Thank you for giving me her heart. I promise I will take good care of it.
Lena didn't know she was crying until she felt a tear fall onto her hand. She laid the letter in her lap and wiped the tears from her cheeks, but more just fell to replace them.
A little child got her mom's heart... She didn't even think that was possible. She thought children could only get organs from other children... She never would have thought... God, she didn't even know what to think.
Lena grabbed the envelope to look at the name on the front.
It was messily written in blue ink, telling her that whoever received the heart - a boy, she knows by now, by the name - is who wrote out the name and address on the front of the card.
Lena went over to her desk, where her computer is at, and opens it up. She brings up Firefox, but, instead of going to Google this time, she goes to Facebook. She knows that, if you want to find someone young, Facebook is a much better option than Google.
So, with a racing heart and tears still rolling down her face - something which she didn't quite understand why it wouldn't stop, she typed the boy's name into the search bar.
Damian McGinty.
This is yet another story that I had in mind that I just had to write. I really hope you enjoy this one because it has been in my mind for a while now.
Let me know what you think!
"I'm sorry; there was nothing we could do."
Lena sat at her desk, staring at the computer screen. She had just Google searched her mother's name, scrolling down past the articles about her death from many, many years ago.
She had read all of the articles so many times, seeing the photos of the crash in the side columns of said articles, that it didn't even phase her anymore.
She had been surprised the first time she looked her up, not expecting anyone to take those old articles and put them onto the computer but she was glad they were there. Every time she missed her, in some sort of odd way, reading these articles helped her... but today, she wasn't going to read them again. She was looking for something different.
Unable to find what she was looking for, she went back up to the search bar and added "donor" to her name, then clicked 'enter'.
Links popped up once again, but this time there was a new one. She clicked on it to find it was a paper from a small town in Dublin - Creation was the name - that Lena had never heard of... She decided now wasn't the time to make a snarky comment about the name.
The article was about a man, John Davies, who needed a liver transplant. He was about to give up on ever getting one, figuring he was just going to die... there was no other option.
Then, one day, he got a call. He had to get to the hospital immediately.
He didn't even ask questions, he just went. He was quickly taken back and into surgery. Everything happened so fast that he wasn't even sure what was fully going on until he woke back up.
Yes, he had been told, in full, what was happening before being put under the anesthesia and was allowed to decline if he wanted "but seriously, who would decline to live?", John was quoted saying.
Lena continued reading, seeing where John had desperately wanted to know whose liver he had received. His doctor told him a name, Margaret Callahan, but that was it.
The man went on, saying how he wished he could thank Margaret's family. He sometimes feels awful that another person had to die so he could live, but he says, "I will be eternally grateful for Margaret and her family, for giving me another chance at live."
Tears were pooled in Lena's eyes. She finished reading the article and saw a picture of a man with his two grandkids. After staring at it for a couple of minutes, she went hack to Google's main page and typed in the man's name along with the city he was from.
The article popped up again... and underneath it, his obituary.
Lena's heart sunk. She clicked on it, hoping it was a different John Davies from Creation.
It wasn't.
The same picture of him with his grandkids was on the obituary, and written underneath was a short biography about his life, including the liver transplant. Whoever wrote it, said that they were happy for the four extra years they were given with John. They would be forever thankful for his organ donor and they know that the two have met in heaven now, because that was John's wish. That he could meet the woman who saved his life.
Lena finished reading the obituary, a single tear slipping down her face in the process.
While she was upset that John had died, she couldn't help but by happy, too. The Davies family seemed like amazing people and she was so proud her mom helped them. A man got to watch his grandkids grow up four more years because of her mom... That was something to be happy about..
Lena couldn't believe how well the search had gone so far. She had found one of three people who had received an organ from her mom.
She could mark liver off the list now.
That left the eyes and heart.
She searched her mom's name again, with the word "donor" added on, just like before, but this time she came up empty.
"Lena, dinner!" Her dad called to her.
She sighed. "Coming."
-8-
Two weeks later and nothing. She hadn't found anything else about her mom or who received her organs.
She knew she couldn't do intense research on this... Her dad wasn't even really comfortable with her looking this up (which was the reason she hadn't told him about John yet), so she knew her computer was to be her only source of information for the time being.
-8-
Another week later, Lena couldn't keep it anymore. After dinner, while Caragh and Julian were sitting on the couch watching the news, Lena sat down in her dad's recliner.
Julian automatically knew something was up. "What's wrong, Lena?"
Lena turned her head from the television and looked at her dad. "Don't get mad."
Julian turned off the television. "Lena," he said in a warning tone.
"I - I found the person who got mom's liver... three weeks ago."
She was met with silence. Caragh just looked at Julian, waiting for his reply. Lena was doing the same thing, except her heart was pounding.
"Three weeks ago?" Julian questioned, his voice calm.
Lena nodded. "I know you didn't really want me looking anything up about it until I'm eighteen, but I couldn't wait. I found an article about him... He - He's dead now. I found his obituary, too, but I just... I just didn't want to keep it from you."
Julian sighed... a very, very long sigh.
He looked over at Caragh, who just nodded, then he got up and headed up the stairs.
"Wh - Where's he going?" Lena asked, afraid her dad was too upset to stay in the room.
"He'll be back," Caragh assured her.
They sat in silence the rest of the time while they waited.
Sure enough, as Caragh had said, her dad came back, this time carrying a manila envelope in his hands. He sat back down on the couch and stared down at the envelope, then handed it to Lena.
"What's this?" Lena asked.
"A long time ago, right after your mom died, I wanted to know who was getting her organs. I asked around, trying to find out how I could get the information, and finally someone told me that they could get the information for me.
They worked on it for a long time, until they found the people. They said they wouldn't force them to contact me, but, if they wanted to, I'd probably get a letter from them soon. Almost eight months later, I got the note in the mail. I opened it. It was from the man who received her liver.
I read it... and it was like it opened all of my still-healing wounds and poured salt into them. I was a mess for a couple of weeks, but I couldn't stop reading it... until I forced myself to. I stuck it in this envelope and left it there.
Then, three months later, I got another letter. This one had a..." Julian paused, clearing his throat. "It had a heart drawn on the back of the envelope and I... I knew what was inside and - and I couldn't. I couldn't open it. I just stuck it in the envelope with the other letter, sealed the envelope, and never looked at it again."
Lena looked down at the envelope. Suddenly it felt so heavy. Like it carried a tone of weight with it. "You're - you're letting me have it?"
"I didn't want to give it to you until you were eighteen, but I don't think you're going to let this go until you get more answers, so here they are. You'll be eighteen in six months anyway; this is close enough."
Lena took a deep breath. She got up, envelope in one hand, and hugged her dad. "Thank you," she said to him. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, Lena."
After she finished her hug with her dad, she hugged Caragh. She wasn't sure why, but it just felt necessary. "I'm going to take this upstairs," she said after her hug with Caragh.
She got halfway up the stairs when her dad called out to her. "Lena?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't let it reopen the wounds," he told her, staring straight into her eyes. "Don't let it pull you back, okay?"
Lena nodded slowly. "Okay, dad."
-8-
Once Lena was back in her room, with her door shut and locked - she just couldn't deal with Michael barging in right now - she set the envelope on the bed and stared at it.
It was almost like it was some live animal, or maybe this big ball of energy that, if she touched it, it would electrocute her. She paced. Back and forth, back and forth.
She wasn't sure exactly why she felt this way. Three weeks ago, when she found John, it wasn't like this. Yes, she had had been obsessing about finding the other people since then, but it hadn't reopened the wounds... had it?
It was just something in her dad's eyes when she talked to him. Something in the way he said, "don't let it put you back." He was speaking from experience, that much was certain, but that wouldn't happen with Lena, would it? It had been nine years since her mom died, that was long enough to not get too emotional over this... right?
Lena stopped pacing, put her hands on her hips, and glared at the envelope. "Just do it, Lena! This is what you want."
And with that, she picked up the envelope, opened it, and pulled out the first letter.
It was the one from John.
She opened the envelope it came in, which had already been unsealed by her dad, and read:
Dear Callahan family,
I am so glad to be able to write to you. Firstly, I want to thank you for everything. I know it must be hard to be without Margaret but, in her death, she gave me life and I will be eternally grateful for that.
Lena smiled, remembering he said the same thing in the article that she had read, then continued reading.
I know nothing I say will take away the pain of losing her, but just know that you did not lose all of her. I am not talking about the fact that I, and hopefully many others, have a piece of her with us now, but I am talking about the fact that her spirit will be with you forever.
I know I don't know anything about her, or any of you, but I have a feeling that she was a great woman.
There are so many things I want to say to you, but I will keep it short for now. I hope we get to talk more in the future and, maybe one day, meet in person.
Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
John Davies
Lena was sitting on her bed by the time she got to the end of the letter. She had a feeling that she would have liked John. He seemed like a very grandpa-ish type. She wished she could have gotten the chance to know him.
She read over the letter twice more before setting it down beside her on the bed.
She picked the manila envelope up again, pulling the other letter out. This one had a heart drawn on the back, just like her father had said. She knew that meant that, whoever sent this note, got her mom's heart... and that just made her own heart race.
She opened the envelope, not even thinking to look at the address and name on the front first. Her eyebrows furrowed when she caught sight of the paper inside the envelope.
Construction paper, to be exact.
Pink construction paper, to be even more exact.
On the front of the handmade card was a giant, red heart that covered most of the page. She slowly opened the card, expecting it to be some sort of horrible joke when she saw the whole thing written with a mix of blue, green, and orange colored pencils, then she began to read.
Hello Callahans. My mommy told me that your wife and mommy gave me a new heart. I know you are sad that you lost her, but I am so happy with my heart. I have to take medicine every day to make sure the heart stays safe, but I don't mind. Since I know you miss her heart, I wanted to give you this one.
Drawn underneath was another huge heart, but this time little tiny hearts were drawn inside of it. Each one a different color.
Thank you for giving me her heart. I promise I will take good care of it.
Lena didn't know she was crying until she felt a tear fall onto her hand. She laid the letter in her lap and wiped the tears from her cheeks, but more just fell to replace them.
A little child got her mom's heart... She didn't even think that was possible. She thought children could only get organs from other children... She never would have thought... God, she didn't even know what to think.
Lena grabbed the envelope to look at the name on the front.
It was messily written in blue ink, telling her that whoever received the heart - a boy, she knows by now, by the name - is who wrote out the name and address on the front of the card.
Lena went over to her desk, where her computer is at, and opens it up. She brings up Firefox, but, instead of going to Google this time, she goes to Facebook. She knows that, if you want to find someone young, Facebook is a much better option than Google.
So, with a racing heart and tears still rolling down her face - something which she didn't quite understand why it wouldn't stop, she typed the boy's name into the search bar.
Damian McGinty.