The 901: The precious gift of life: Organ donations in Memphis; ranking Blue Oval City

Good Friday morning, Memphis, where we're locked in summer-like spin cycle but cooler temps and some much-needed rain are in forecast.

But, first, we're focusing on two Memphis families who put the power of organ donations front and center.

For Anna Lopez, the call that changed her life forever came around 8 on a Friday night. Her 17-year-old son Grant had been in a car wreck and wasn’t breathing, our Corinne Kennedy reports in this story for subscribers.

“Immediately your world just stops. It just literally stops,” Lopez said.

Grant was returning to Memphis from his dad’s house in Mississippi to attend an Ole Miss-Memphis football game at the Liberty Bowl in October 2015 when the crash occurred near Barton, Mississippi.

What authorities told Lopez likely happened was that Grant was looking to pass the car in front of him, pulled into the oncoming lane but saw another vehicle rapidly approaching. He tried to pull back but overcompensated as a young driver, swerved off the road and hit a tree. He was taken via helicopter to Regional One Health, Corinne reports.

“You walk around a corner and you see your son on a vent… It's the hardest thing that you'll ever see,” Lopez said.

The doctors tried multiple treatments for Grant but when Lopez saw his brain scans she knew he was not going to recover. She had worked in healthcare for more than two decades at that point — now the chief operating officer at Methodist Germantown, she had also worked as an X-ray technician — and knew the implications of a midline shift, brain bleed and stroke.

Shortly thereafter someone from the hospital approached her and asked about organ donation.

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What's next for Carrefour at the Gateway shopping center?

Carrefour at the Gateway in Germantown could see construction begin this year as the new owners work toward redevelopment with one building as a glimpse into the rest of the project, our Dima Amro reports in this story for subscribers.

Developer CRE DEVCO Germantown will head to the planning commission in June after it presented its phase 1a final plan to the subcommittee Wednesday.

The developer requested splitting the first phase into 1a and 1b, with 1a including the construction of a roughly 10,000-square-foot, two-story retail and restaurant building at Poplar Avenue and Kirby Parkway.

Ranking Ford's Blue Oval City among the nation's deals

Ford Motor Co.’s $5.6 billion Blue Oval City project in Haywood County recently tied for first place in Site Selection magazine's “2021 Top Deals in North America."

Site Selection ranked the top 20 North American deals in its May 2022 edition. Site Selection indexed capital expenditure and job creation data maintained by the magazine’s publisher, Conway Data, to determine the top deals from 2021, our Omer Yusuf reports in this story.

Opa! Greek fest takes center stage this weekend

If you love Greek food, you are in luck this weekend. The Memphis Greek Festival happens May 20-21 at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 573 N. Highland St.

The festival features a variety of Greek food options, including spanakopita (spinach pie), gyros, souvlakia (pork tenderloin), moussaka (eggplant casserole), pastitsio (Greek lasagna), marinated lamb chops, baklava and more than a dozen Greek pastries. Each dish is handmade with love by a small army of volunteers, our Jennifer Chandler reports.

For 63 years, the congregation of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church has shared its love for the Greek Orthodox faith, heritage, food, music and culture with the people of the Mid-South through this annual two-day event.

Briarcrest Christian baseball found a way during season

The energy in the Briarcrest Christian dugout had been drained heading into the bottom of the fifth inning of Thursday’s Division II-AA state tournament qualifier game.

Not even Matthew Dallas, the loudest Saint in the dugout, could energize his team as it gave up six straight Knoxville Catholic runs in a 12-10 season-ending loss at home, our Wynston Wilcox reports in this story..

Briarcrest coach Craig Hopkins had a simple message to his young team with its season on the line: Find a way.

Those words might as well have been the motto for the Saints (17-21) this season, because every time it looked bleak, they managed to find a way.

In the middle of the season during a 2-8 stretch, the Saints responded by winning eight of their next nine.

Should Grizzlies trade Dillon Brooks?

Our sports columnist Mark Giannotto makes a case for what the Grizzlies should do with Dillon Brooks this offseason.

Here's an excerpt from Mark's column:

It’s probably for the best Dillon Brooks doesn’t use or check social media.

That’s what he claimed the night the Memphis Grizzlies got their final win of the season, in Game 5 against the Golden State Warriors, the game after Brooks took so many bad shots and his biggest critics, locally and nationally, piled on. 

“I don’t hear anybody,” Brooks said then, and so maybe he doesn’t hear the loud portion of the Grizzlies fan base that presumes he could be traded this offseason. 

During these days of withdrawal, watching the Western Conference Finals play out knowing the Grizzlies could be there with just a few more breaks this postseason, the unknown is never more intoxicating. Anything to get rid of the feeling when something as fun and fulfilling as this past season comes to an unceremonious end. 

Have a great weekend, everyone. Summer officially arrives June 21, but it's already feeling like the the season has taken up residence around here.

Mark Russell is executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at mark.russell@commercialappeal.com or 901/288-4509. You  can also follow me on Twitter: @MarkRussell44

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis news: Ford Blue Oval City deal, Grizzlies' Dillon Brooks