Pontiac area families give thanks for the gift of life

Thanksgiving is a holiday that means a lot of different things to different people.

Whether you spend the day feasting on turkey and stuffing or watching football or playing with grandkids, Thanksgiving, for many, is about gratitude.

As the holiday approached, a small group of organ donors and recipients gathered at Fairbury Baptist Church to talk about their experiences.

'It's how you survive'

Molly Brown has shown her unsinkability by surviving a congenital heart defect at birth.

In cases like Molly's, a transplant is often a last resort, explained her mother, Shannon Brown. After enduring a number of procedures, including trying to implant a pacemaker, the family was facing that last resort by the time Molly was 6 years old.

“It was very much like a bombshell dropped on us,” Shannon Brown said. “We were not expecting this at all. It was supposed to be go in, have the pacemaker surgery and be out in a couple of days.”

Molly received her new heart on April 4, 2018. After a few complications and a lengthy stay in the Chicago area, she was able to come home.

“All she's been through, I think it's how you survive,” Brown said. “There are things I notice that she does that my other kids don't. She can walk into a room, and she notices details that I would never would have picked upon. She's always been very aware of everything around her."

Answered prayers

Debbie Moran suffered a viral attack in 1996. She was hooked up to a machine at OSF Saint Francis in Peoria for two-and-a-half months before undergoing heart-replacement surgery on Nov. 12, 1996.

“That was a miracle, as far as I was concerned, to receive that heart,” Moran said.

At the time, Moran had a daughter in the fourth grade, a son in seventh grade and a daughter who was a sophomore in high school.

“I did say that prayer,” Moran adds. “'Can I please hang around until they graduate from high school?'”

That prayer was answered as the oldest daughter is now 42 with kids of her own.

“It's 27 years that I get to celebrate Thanksgiving,” Moran said. “What made that 18-year-old girl give up that heart? … That's truly why we celebrate with Thanksgiving.”

Importance of giving

Doug and Linda Zick lost their daughter, Ellen, in an car crash south of Mazon on a snowy Thanksgiving Eve in 2004.

Ellen was just 23 and was on her way home to spend the holiday with her family.

“She knew Debbie (Moran). She knew about the heart transplant," Doug Zick said. "Prior to her death, she had to get reregistered with her license and she told us, 'I want to be an organ donor if something happens,' ... I don't know if she had a premonition she'd die or something.”

It was noted on Ellen's driver's license that she was a registered organ donor. The Zicks received a phone call a couple hours after the crash. It had been too long for the other major organs to be saved, Linda Zick said, but they were asked about retrieving Ellen's corneas, heart valves and bone marrow.

The Zicks said they didn't give it a second thought.

“That's what Ellen wanted,” Doug Zick said.

“We were more at peace with it because we knew she wanted it (that way),” Linda Zick said. “We got a letter from (Gift of Hope) that said two people had sight because of the corneas.”

Every year on Thanksgiving Eve, Moran hosts a soup supper in celebration and memory of Ellen Zick. The Morans and Zicks and some of Ellen's friends get together.

“It's a wonderful celebration,” Moran said.

Doug Zick said the annual gathering helps his him and his wife get through the difficult time and serves as a reminder of the importance of being an organ donor.

“Life is a one-way street,” Zick said. “You can't turn around and go back and correct it. But you can enjoy, or somebody can enjoy, what you've given them. To me, that's important.”

Becoming a believer

Bryan Aberle never thought he'd be an advocate for organ donation.

Even when he got married in 2005 and learned that his wife had signed on to be an organ donor, Aberle wasn't comfortable with the idea.

Five years later, Aberle donated a kidney to a friend.

“I prayed that God would give him a kidney,” Aberle said. “Long story short, God picked me to be the donor, which I wasn't really impressed with. ... I think it's awesome today. I didn't think it was very awesome at the moment, but it's been a good thing.”

Aberle said he met Roger Scherr in November 2010, and that Roger had been dealing with failing kidneys at the time. The transplant surgery was performed the following July.

“I think it's pretty incredible, really,” Aberle said. “I truly believe that God orchestrates these things. In my case, I can go from watching Roger being very sick to being very healthy again and enjoying life.”

This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Being thankful to give and receive the gift of life