In this powerful episode, we welcomed a very special guest, Sam Fledderjohann, whose incredible journey from protector to life-giver is a testament to resilience, faith, and divine timing. With co-host Kim Schmidt—Host Dan's wife—stepping in as Ben sits this one out, the conversation took on an even more heartfelt tone.
Born to a very young mother and raised in a home full of instability, Sam stepped into a caregiving role for her siblings early on. While her childhood was far from easy, she found comfort and stability at her grandparents’ farm—an experience that would later shape her values and skillset.
Sam’s story takes an extraordinary turn when, following a deep spiritual prompting, she chose to become a non-directed kidney donor. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that selfless act would launch Ohio State Wexner Medical Center's largest kidney transplant chain in history, helping ten people receive life-saving kidneys over just two days—all thanks to her.
But the divine orchestration didn’t stop there. After the surgery, Sam met her recipient—and in what can only be described as a "God moment," discovered he was deaf. Amazingly, Sam had studied sign language in college and was able to communicate with him directly. The moment moved even seasoned medical professionals to tears and confirmed for Sam that her journey was part of something much greater.
Today, Sam continues to pour into the lives of others as the Special Olympics Coordinator in Mercer County, expanding programming to include basketball, cheerleading, powerlifting, unified golf, equestrian activities, and more. Her guiding belief? "We are beloved children of God." It’s a truth that’s carried her through both the valleys and mountaintops of her life.
Sam's story reminds us that our past—no matter how difficult—can prepare us for a greater purpose. Her early experiences protecting others, her educational path, and her heart for service all aligned to create a ripple effect of hope and healing. When asked if she’d do it all again? She doesn’t hesitate: "A hundred times over."
Are you listening to the promptings in your own life?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home, you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's Glass.
Final replacement windows fromCatron's come with a lifetime
warranty, including accidentalglass breakage replacement.
Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
(00:20):
and services.
Call 962-1636.
Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years,
kitchen's best, the clear choice.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we
explore the art of findingbalance in a chaotic world.
Join us as we delve intoinsightful conversations,
practical tips and inspiringstories to help you navigate
life's ups and downs with graceand resilience.
We're your hosts, dan Schmidtand Ben Spahr.
Let's embark on a journey tolive our best lives.
This is Be Tempered.
(00:51):
What's up everybody.
Welcome to the Be Temperedpodcast, episode number 48.
Wow, ben, your voice changed.
Today we have, instead of Ben,we have my lovely wife Kim
joining us.
Ben is on the other side of theglass because we've got a
little bit of a specialconnection today with our guest
(01:12):
and I want to read a littlebrief intro to kind of set the
tone.
And what I'll tell everyone isthe story that you're going to
hear today, from childhoodthrough growing up, raising a
family and through what mostrecently happened in November
and December is truly remarkable.
(01:33):
It's a story that both you andI heard on a podcast and brought
us both to tears and truly mademe feel like I'm not doing
enough, and I mean thatsincerely, because it's truly
remarkable.
But what we're here today is totalk about the story, to talk
(01:56):
about faith, to talk aboutadversity, and I'm excited for
you all to hear from Sam.
So today we have the privilegeof sitting down with someone
whose heart for service andcommunity knows no bounds.
Sam Fletterjohn is the SpecialOlympics Coordinator in Peer
Support at the Mercer CountyBoard of Developmental
Disabilities, where she'sdedicated herself to empowering
(02:18):
and advocating for athletes andindividuals with disabilities.
But her impact does not stopthere.
Most recently, sam made anincredible, life-changing
decision to become a kidneydonor, setting off a remarkable
10-person transplant chain atOhio State's Wexner Medical
Center.
Her selfless act has not onlychanged lives, but served as a
(02:40):
testament to what truegenerosity looks like.
Beyond her work, sam and herhusband have raised their family
on a farm, instilling in theirchildren the values of hard work
, resilience and service toothers.
Sam, we are honored to have youon the Be Tempered podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, we appreciate you making the trek down from
the Mercer County area, which isthe home of my beautiful wife,
kim, and so again, there's alittle bit of a connection there
that you don't really knowabout.
We've kind of been talkingabout it here this morning the
Mercer County connection, thefarming connection.
We're all the same age, we'reraising larger families.
(03:23):
You know all the challengesthat come with all those things.
But it's pretty remarkable, andyour story is remarkable.
How we start off every podcastis we like to start from the
beginning, and I think yourstory from the beginning will
show people your life and whyyou chose to do what you did and
what you're doing now.
So can you start off from yourchildhood and talk about what it
(03:45):
was like growing up?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Sure, so I grew up, obviously pretty locally.
I was actually Allglaize County, so I work in Mercer, but I
lived in Allglaize County inOhio and I was born to a very
young mother.
I was her second child and shewas I'm not quite 18 when I was
born.
So that was all I knew.
(04:07):
So it was great, right, youdon't know what you don't know,
but I was born.
My father was significantlyolder than my mom, significantly
, being my mom was a teenagerand my dad was 27.
Okay, yeah.
So, yeah, my parents did end upmarrying and several years later
(04:28):
had two more children.
Um, that marriage, um was, fromthe beginning, pretty tough, as
you can imagine.
It didn't come from the bestcircumstances, um, and there was
a lot of mental health issueswith my where my father was
concerned, um, my fatherconcerned, um, my father um was
raised well.
He was the child of farmers andum he, my mother, was not
(04:54):
raised so much.
She is the daughter of a germanimmigrant and who married
american soldier that she barelyknew because she was pregnant.
Um, so they're very differentupbringings, very different
expectations of what this wasgoing to look like.
And, needless to say, thatmarriage did not last and it
finally ended when I was 14years old, and it needed to.
(05:19):
It needed to for the mentalhealth of both of them, and then
my mom quickly went intoanother marriage.
That was not healthy.
It was a bit, not a bit.
I'm trying to minimize it and Ican't to be fair.
It was an abusive marriage, butI grew up with although there
(05:44):
was chaos my entire life in myhome.
There was also this underlyingno matter where we were
financially, no matter where wewere within the bounds of our
home, this expectation of lovingothers wherever they are.
And for all the things thatwere chaotic in my life, there
were also lessons that weretaught to me.
All the things that werechaotic in my life, there were
(06:07):
also lessons that were taught tome.
My grandparents were farmers inPreble County, right across the
line here, and I spent most ofmy summers with my grandparents.
So they were a wonderfulstability to me as a child and
were very influential in thekind of the way I run my own
household and the way I parentand the way I feed my household.
You know they instilled allthose things, and in my mother
(06:29):
as well.
My mother wasn't truly raised.
I always say that she just kindof kept aging Right, she wasn't
really aged or she just aged.
She didn't really, wasn'treally raised, and my, my
paternal grandparents did a nicejob of teaching her.
You know they taught her thethings that most of us learn in
small communities how to can,how to garden, how to do all
those things.
(06:49):
Therefore, I know how to dothose things when in reality, if
you look at my life story, Ishouldn't know how to do those
things.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Okay.
So we were very blessed to havethem as a consistent people who
loved us consistently.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So so was it.
Was it a challenge when you,you know you spent the time with
your grandparents and you talkabout, you know the impact that
they had on your life.
Was it hard when you went backhome?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Um, no, because I love my siblings so much and I'm
a protector by nature, and itwas usually me wanting to go
home to make sure they were okay.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Because of things that were going on.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Just just worried a little bit about you know where
they were now.
Once my parents divorced, I was14, you kind of stopped doing
that as much.
Most of my childhood was that,and I can't even say that all of
my childhood was chaotic,because you're a child, it's
your norm right.
And a lot of our kids don't knowthis until they leave that and
be like, oh, that was not okay.
So I can't say that mychildhood was horrible because
(07:53):
it's all you know and we hadespecially as siblings.
There's going to be bondsbetween siblings that are
different.
When you are living that lifetogether, you're each other's
safety zone.
Living that life together, um,you're, you're each other's
safety zone, you know, I, um, Itell stories of um.
You know, when my mom remarriedinto out of desperation, I
(08:14):
think it just her mental, shewas not in a place to do that
and it just.
You know, she was still veryyoung when I was 14, you can
imagine, right.
So, um, there was a lot ofneeding to do some protecting
within that, within my home, andI was that person, and for not
only my mother, um, but for myyounger siblings as well, and I
wasn't always good at it.
I was 14, 15, 16.
, um, uh.
(08:34):
But we, we went from onechaotic situation that was just
mental health not just that wasmental health to full onon
physical abuse and chaos.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So you know, and you're 14, 15, 16 years old, you
know you're going throughschooling, which there's
challenges in school and friendsand all those things, and then
you come home to you knowphysical abuse.
Talk about how you were able tomentally not only be there for
your siblings but, I assume,also for your mom.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah.
So, um, I don't remember a timewhen I wasn't protective of my
mother.
Um, when my parents, when I wasa child, verse all the way till
now even and she doesn't needme to be that now, but it's hard
for me not to be I will alwaysbe slightly defensive of her.
Did she get it all right?
(09:32):
Absolutely not, but she waslearning along the way.
She was learning about how tobe a mom when she wasn't really
mothered.
So there's a lot of grace there.
But yeah, there were timeswhere she was the brunt of his
abuse.
It wasn't to us, especially tome.
He was always slightly afraidof me.
Maybe that's a strong word.
I could get him to back downwhen I walked into a room At 14
(09:56):
years old 15 at that time butyeah, I can't explain it to you,
Nobody can explain it to you.
I know you've heard thesestories before, but I just to
you, Nobody can explain it toyou.
I know you've heard thesestories before, but I just you
know I'm 15 years old and I'dwake up at 4.30 in the morning
because I knew there had beenchaos the night before and I
would go out and make sure welived in town at the time her
(10:17):
clothes would be all over ourfront yard.
He had taken things that herdad had left her and broken them
in the yard.
So I'd get up and I'd bringthem all back in the house and
clean them up, and and and thenthere was a contract that my mom
had a cleaning business andthere was contracts that needed
to be fulfilled but shephysically couldn't do them
Right.
So I would go three towns overbefore school, clean that
(10:40):
contract, come back, make sureeverybody else is going and
going to school, and then youpretend like you've got it all
together because you're 15 andthat's humiliating, right?
So, um, did anybody know?
I don't think so.
Um, I I assume the neighborsprobably saw the chaos.
Um, I got it up.
I remember picking it up beforethe light sun came up, but and?
(11:00):
Um?
So there were times like thatshe would come in my room and
hide I've hidden her in closets,I've hidden her in my bed and
he would come looking for her.
There were times when I wouldbe at school and you know, I'm
16, 17 years old at this timenow and my spirit's just like
(11:21):
you need to go home, you need togo home, you need to go home
and um to this day.
I truly believe had I not gonehome.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
My mother would be deceased.
He would have killed her.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was that bad.
It was that bad and you justhad a feeling, yeah, but I, you
know, to be fair, um, it's notlike it was a feeling out of
nowhere.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Like it was, it was thesethings every other day, it was
what's going to happen.
What's going to happen?
You're constantly living inthis fight or flight.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Um tension, tension, yeah, so you.
So you had this feeling and youwent home.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
I went, I walked home .
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So so talk about that situation.
What, what came of that?
I mean, he backed down to you.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
He did.
He left when I got there.
My mom was in the bedroom and heleft when I got there.
You know my mom is, she's atough cookie, she's been through
it all and he left.
There was actually an arrestafter that because there was
shown physical abuse and I don'twant to get too heavy, but if
(12:25):
you want to know the facts,there was a couple of arrests
and I ended up leaving, comingback.
The time just keeps moving andI ended up leaving for school,
came back on Christmas break,the first semester, and at that
time things had gotten so badbecause I was gone.
While I was gone not because Iwas gone and at that time my mom
and my two younger siblingswere um, living in a woman's
(12:48):
shelter Um, what that is.
He doesn't know where they'reat right, he just knows they're
gone in a shelter and so they'reprotected.
And um and I stayed there myfirst semester, home.
So I go to college and everyonethinks that, like I have my
life together, because I can, Ican make anybody believe that
Right and um and I come and Istay in a shelter and with my
(13:11):
mother, and then um time goes on, he breaks in a couple of times
it was a restraining order andhe, um is finally arrested again
, and I didn't mention thisbefore, but yeah, so then five
months later, he ended upcommitting suicide in jail.
Yeah, and you know, it's astrange place to be in the
(13:33):
middle of, because it's a liferight and also to feel safe for
the first time in several years.
It's a weird process to walkyourself through and to pray
through and to communicate.
And I remember all my youngersiblings.
My older sibling is she's only20 months older than me, but she
(13:53):
is already gone at this time.
She's at Ohio State, maybealready graduated Ohio State.
And to comfort them and Iremember just to to comfort them
, and I remember just, you know,I'm 18, still 18 at this time
Um, and they all just crawled inmy bed with they both just
crawled in my bed with me, andthey're teenagers at this time,
(14:14):
you know.
And we just cause.
What do you do?
How do you explain to somebodyyes, somebody died, but golly,
we feel safe.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And exhale it's, it's , it's a strange, that's a tough
, strange feeling.
Well, especially at that age, Imean tough for anybody, but all
that you had been through.
Let me ask you this as you'retalking, I'm thinking you know
we haven't even got to.
You know what's most, whatyou've most recently done.
But hearing your story like arethese the first times you've
told these?
Like out in public.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, it's not some especially.
You know, we're from a smalltown and my parent, my mom, has
has a beautiful life and she hasall the good that she has done
in the worst of times has comeback to her and the blessings on
her life you know have reallythey're beautiful Beauty, for
ashes it is.
She has a beautiful life and um, so it's hard for me a little
(15:12):
bit because we come from such asmall place.
So everybody knows everybodyand so I asked her permission
before I did this.
Um, I said you know that sheand she was.
Um, she said whenever you, thisis your life story and it's
yours to tell, and I'm nevergoing to be the person to tell
you, not to tell it.
If I could ask anything, it'sjust don't make me to be a
(15:33):
martyr or this woman who justcouldn't figure it out.
And I said how could I do that?
Because you're not that, you'renot, you were.
You know she did the best shecould for what she had and
really did a great job.
For me.
My youngest childhood memoriesare my mom serving in some
capacity.
She would drag all of us to thenursing home with her and just
(15:54):
visit people who had nobody.
This wasn't taught to her, itwas just her nature.
So, even in the worst of times,my mom's always been a giver,
always.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So so let me ask you where does your faith come from?
Like I look at you and I see ahalo around your head, I mean
what you went through as a childand to be essentially what you
said the protector.
You know whether you wanted tobe or not.
You, you, you are and you werethe protector.
But where did that faith comefrom?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
um, I, I mean we were still raised in church mom
would take us, I, but it was sochaotic.
I remember my dad just likemocking her, taking us to church
and going.
But I will tell you, my jesusis very real to me, very, very
real.
And, um, this is not.
I feel the presence of him inalmost every situation not and
(16:52):
um when that, when he's such areal part of your life,
explaining it to somebody whonot yourself, but who wouldn't
quite get it, it just makes youthey think you're crazy.
Or oh, oh, she's got that.
You know she doesn't have itall together, no, it's.
He's just very real.
And I, you know, I was justhaving a talk with my son the
(17:12):
other day about this.
I said I couldn't do this life,I can't imagine doing this life
, without that faith and thatconnection.
That sounds terrible.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well, that's part of it.
When I heard your story that somuch of it hit home, because
for me, I teach religion classand trying to teach the kids to
have a relationship with God isabout talking to him all the
time and build that relationship.
It's like then you have thosemoments of when he speaks to you
and you're like I just know it.
I mean this is what I have todo, because I just I feel it and
I think that's what drawspeople so close to faith and
become more involved in theirfaith is because of those
feelings of knowing that he'salive and he's right here with
(18:01):
me.
So I just really need to hearthat.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, it's amazing as you're answering that question.
I just interviewed a coupleweeks ago, a lady named Deb
Tinsman and she was mostrecently diagnosed with cancer
and went through I mean, shejust came through all of her
chemo treatments.
I think in November is when shefinished up and she's in
remission right now.
But she answered that questionthe exact same way and, um, it's
(18:29):
just amazing, she, you know,she, she taught.
I asked her what you know, whatadvice would you give to
someone who's in the middle, orwho's been given the cancer
diagnosis or in the middle ofgoing through chemo treatments?
And she said I don't know howanyone could get through without
faith.
I can't imagine.
Yeah, and so it's.
(18:50):
It's pretty cool to be able tosit at this table and interview
different people that have hadcompletely different life
experiences, but to get the sameanswer.
That's pretty neat.
So you go through thatchildhood and thank you for
sharing that Cause.
I know that's not easy, youknow, and you're very humble.
Um, you're, you're amazing andwe're going to continue to climb
(19:11):
that ladder.
So you get out of college.
What's next for you?
What's your career look like?
What's your family look like?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Kind of talk about that.
Well, let's be real here.
I didn't come out of thatunscathed, okay?
So you grew up in chaos and Imarried young.
Well, we won't go into becausewhy, but to a young man who had
a family that was perfect.
And, boy, was that a safety net?
Perfect, right, because who hasthat?
(19:38):
But when you grew up in thatkind of environment, you see
somebody with these marriedparents who are good people.
And I married very young andbecause, a, I wanted purity and
I wanted that safety, so we, Imarried young and obviously, um,
(19:59):
that didn't work out and, um,we had children, and with no
regrets, because I just feellike when you, even with our
mistakes, when we give them toGod, he is the master of making
it all so beautiful, puttingthose pieces together and of
grace and forgiveness and loveand um, work.
And that was a failure I wasn'tprepared for because I was not
(20:22):
going to repeat, it was notgoing to happen and guess what?
That happened, but I didn'trepeat because we have a
beautiful, I have a beautifullife with a man that I couldn't
have handpicked better.
So, yeah, so we have my husbandfarms and it's interesting to
(20:45):
me because my grandparents,obviously they're generational
farmers and they had brown Swisscows which, as you know, for
Mercer County, nobody has brownSwiss cows, right, everybody has
their black and white Holsteins.
And then I meet this, this manwho, um, is a Brown Swiss milk
dairy farmer and he's like, oh,you probably had never.
(21:07):
And I was like, no, this is youknow so.
And he, um, and it's just beena ride for the last 18 years.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So you married a dairy farmer.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Well, I married one, but we stopped milking two years
ago, after 85 years.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
How was that?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
It is.
I get to see my husband.
Sometimes we can leave and goto dinner before 7.30 PM.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It was a.
It was a.
It was a bigger.
I took it harder than he didbecause we spent so much of our
I mean we weren't dating verylong before he needed me to help
him.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So you know it's.
It was a huge part of our.
But he's much happier.
Sounds like a farmer.
Yeah yeah, kim has never heardthat I need you to go walk the
pig barn, yeah.
So, uh, with that, you've got afamily, you've got kids, so
talk about your kids a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, and so together we raised five children.
My daughter was only four, sothat's you know, he's been so
influential in her life and theylove each other.
It's we've.
I would like to say I feel likewe've done a great job.
Our kids are all so close andum, I I am such a family
oriented person.
I I'm always hosting theparties at my house and getting
(22:15):
my extended, my siblings andtheir siblings, my kids, my
sisters.
Obviously I'm very close to mysiblings, so their children and
our, my children are are thickas thieves.
They're so tight and um.
So, yeah, they were raised um.
Three of them have two of theboys.
The boys graduated from Wrightstate and my um one son went to
Hobart welding school and and mydaughter, um, finished at
(22:37):
Xavier university last year, butshe is back at Xavier um doing
her graduate work.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay, what are you doing for work, as you're going,
as you're raising this family,as life's going on, talk about,
talk about what, what type ofbusiness she got into all those
things.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Sure.
So when my kids were little, Istayed home because all I really
truly wanted to do was be theirmommy and to give them the life
experiences that were good frommine I was.
So we did that and I taughtSunday school and did all those
things.
And then, um, when they got alittle bit older and um, my life
changed.
I went back to work and I didsome interpreting for the deaf
(23:14):
um a little bit when they wereyounger, just kind of freelance.
And then I went into socialwork.
I've done social work freelance, but that kind of went with the
interpreting.
And then I went and worked atan IFC in Minster, which is a
group home for those withdevelopmental disabilities, and
(23:35):
then did some things for theMedicaid system, working with
the elderly, um, and some socialwork.
And then I went and during thattime I volunteered for special
Olympics um in my County.
And then, um, six, seven yearsago, I went um and started
working full time for the County.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Okay, working in special Olympics?
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Yeah, that's the when I, when I first got hired in,
that was going to be 30% of myjob.
I would say it's 95% of my jobbecause we've just grown in and
just yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, so at some point in time now we're going to
get to how we found you.
Hold on a second, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Before you start that , you graduated college?
With what kind of degree?
Social, social, okay, but partof it.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
You went in and took Deaf Studies was my major when I
first started.
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Why Deaf Studies?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
It's fascinating.
To me it always was, as alittle girl.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You didn't have anyone in your family that was
deaf.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
No, it was just something that always clicked to
me as a little girl and when Istruggled with language in high
other in high school, and Istruggled, I didn't do well in
Spanish and I didn't do well,but, um, that one, just that one
, just came to me and I justloved it and I loved the culture
because it's it's a culture aswell as, just as a language like
any other language has its ownculture, and the culture of the
deaf world is, um, just sointriguing to me yeah, did you
(24:56):
ever get to use it very much?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I used to interpret in church a little bit and then
I would do, um, I would dopeople like what they would uh,
some of my deaf folks that wouldgo and do job interviews, I
would interpret those and thingslike that.
But, um, in this area afull-time work it's not, you
know, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I haven't used it in probably 15 years.
Yeah, that's a good point,cause that that ties the whole
score story together.
So, thank you, there's a reasonyou're here and been sitting on
the other side of the glass.
So now we get to a couple ofyears ago.
When, when did, when did youreceive that sign or that
(25:35):
calling from God, whatever itwas to make you want to do what
you did with your kidney?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Um, it never something.
I never even thought aboutuntil maybe 18 months ago, less
than that.
Um, I, you know, everybody hassocial media and you see on
social media that somebody knowssomebody.
There's nobody who doesn't know.
If you don't know somebodydirectly, you know somebody
knows somebody.
And you see those things and Iwould scroll past like boy man,
I hope they get that.
(26:03):
And, you know, didn't thinkmuch of it.
And then there was a gentlemanlocally to me who has since got
his kidney just in the last twoweeks, who I thought well, I can
just call and see if I'm a, youknow, a match for him.
And so I called and they saidyou're not.
And I said, okay, just by myblood type, everything, they
knew immediately that I was nota match for him.
(26:25):
I said, oh, okay, no problem,so I'm.
I remember walking down ahallway and just feeling it in
my spirit You're not done.
That phone call was not the endof this.
You are not done.
Oh, I don't know anybody else.
Okay, and I think through life,when things are laid on your
spirit, when you are supposed todo something, you are not going
(26:49):
to have peace until you do it.
It's just, you know, yeah, andso it's on my mind.
But I have to be careful withthat, because I am an empath and
I also am a server and I haveto be balanced out on that
sometimes.
So I prayed about it andthought about it and said, lord,
take this from me.
If it's the same thing, if itis me just saying I can save
(27:11):
something, we're not doing that,because I have a job that 75
people rely on me to keep up onand I have children in college
and children starting out theirlives and buying houses.
I need to make sure this is aGod thing before I stop my life.
And so I reached out to OhioState and said, hey, I'm
actually still interested.
(27:32):
Is there any need for what Ihave?
And they said, well, come startthe testing work.
I said, well, hold on a second.
So Mike, my husband, and I hada conversation and, as I've
mentioned before, he is veryused to my personality.
Nothing really surprises himand he's always been the most
supportive.
He's right there beside me,through my things that I do for
(27:52):
Special Olympics, through theextras that we do when we give
in secret, he's always he getsit, which I'm blessed.
you know, to be equally yoked isa really big thing it is well,
it is very much so, but what washis initial reaction when you,
when you said this no onebelieves me, but I, when I, when
I say that he is, um, he is acritical thinker, where I am
(28:20):
more of an emotional thinker, sowe balance each other out, but
he holds me accountable in a waythat is um, respectful and so
loving.
Like you know, I'm his person.
So so, um, it was, I'll watch.
I'll watch it with you, causethey send you a video and you
have to watch it, and it talksabout what your caregiver is
going, cause the caregiver, he,he would be my person.
So the caregiver has to beavailable to you for two weeks
(28:41):
straight, 24 7 doesn't mean theyneed to be sitting right beside
you, just available if you needthem, right?
So he, you know, very muchinvolves him.
So we want.
I watched it alone and then Iremember we were laying in bed
one night.
I said, all right, let's watchthis.
And so we pulled up my phoneand we watched the video again.
He's like wow, they like wow,they do a great job.
They do a great job explainingthe risk, the benefits, the.
You know what it's going tolook like for both of us and, um
(29:03):
, he was like I said, I, I wantto go start the start, the blood
work.
I want to go start, you know,and he was like, okay, he's like
, but I'm going with you, so he,so that he could hear all these
things firsthand, because hethinks that I might make it less
than for myself.
So, um, so we did.
Yeah, we started.
They send me.
I like I told everybody Icarried around a big jug of
(29:24):
urine for to work and put it inmy car.
It was cold outside I didn'thave to put it in the work
refrigerator.
And, um, yeah, a couple oftrips to Columbus.
Luckily, we could go to Limafor a lot of it, but a couple of
trips to Columbus, but stillminor, I mean.
And when I was all done, theysaid, okay, we'll get ahold of
you if we have somebody.
I was like, oh well, I thoughtfor sure that, god, like I was
(29:44):
supposed to do this, I thoughtthis was going to be boom, boom,
boom.
Let's get it done.
I was like, oh, okay, and I said, well, I'd like to do this soon
, because during harvest myhusband is not available to me.
You know, I don't see him inthe light of day unless I'm
helping.
And they said, okay, when isharvest?
So I, you know these city folks, they don't know when harvest
(30:06):
is, and so I had told them thisis when it is.
And I thought, for sure, Iwould hear back right away.
They said, well, and I didn't.
I thought that's kind ofstrange.
So I got on my chart and I sentan email and they said, Sam,
while I'm working on something,please hang tight.
Oh, okay, and that was that.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you're hanging tight and this is what you're
going through the summer.
Yeah, and we're talking.
I mean, this is just 2024.
Yeah, yeah, last summer.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
It was less than a year ago, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So you're going through the summer and it's got
to be on your mind.
It kind of yeah, I mean everyday.
You've kind of made thisdecision.
You're like, all right, god,here, you know, I'm ready Right.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Was I wrong?
Did I not hear the voice?
Was this the same thing?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Because I would second guess it, if it's not
like right now, what's?
Happening Like God is you haveto be patient.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I tell you what his, his perfect timing is not what I
think is perfect timing.
And it turns out he's alwaysright and I'm always wrong.
So at some point in time youeither become impatient or they
call you, right, right, they, um, I actually called them and I
said, hey, I, we were gettingready to plan a vacation and I
didn't.
My last thing would be like totell somebody no, you don't get
your life back because myhusband, I, went to Atlanta
beach, right?
So, um, I had called them andthey said, and.
(31:27):
And then Mike, the RN, who, whodoes all the scheduling for the
transplant center at Ohio state, said your ears must be burning
because we were just talkingabout you.
And he goes and Sam, I havesomething really special planned
here.
He said, but it's in thepreliminary stages and I can't
tell you about it yet.
But I just need to know are youa hundred percent on board, no
matter what?
(31:47):
And I was like oh, somethingspecial.
Okay, I thought I don't know whothis is going to.
I didn't think much of thatbecause I don't know beyond that
.
I know I'm supposed to do this.
I don't, I'm not educated in.
You know how it all works.
And, um, I said, okay, noproblem.
And he's like give me a coupleof weeks and I'll get back to
you and have a date.
He's like can you keep Decemberopen for me, are you?
(32:09):
Are you available in December?
I said I can do that and then acouple of weeks later he called
back and I got the news and Istill didn't.
Do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
Go go into that phone call andwhat that looked like, cause you
, you're going through harvest.
So you're still thinking you'vehad this conversation and
you're thinking, man, I wonderwhat this is, or who, who's this
going to?
Is this going to somebody?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
famous or what you know?
What is this?
Did you have any stipulationswith who it would go to?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Yeah, who it would go to.
Yeah, so they, they do a nicejob at Columbus.
Um, they have a.
You have to go through a psyche, psyche evaluation to make sure
that you know this isunbeknownst to me.
This is a really big deal.
I didn't know it was a big deal, but I'm told it was a big deal
to do this to your body.
So you do go through a psycheevaluation and the social worker
comes in and she even asked myhusband to leave.
You know, they make sure likeno one's coercing you to do this
.
There's no like black marketthing going on.
There's.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
You know that kind of thing you don't get paid for it
.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
No, it is strictly yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, it
doesn't cost you anything, butit doesn't.
But it doesn't.
Uh, you know it doesn't pay um,that's very illegal yeah I
would think yeah um.
So she had asked me do you, doyou have a problem thinking?
You know, um, and you know ifit's a different nationality, if
it's a gender, sexuality,religion?
(33:23):
Do you have an issue with anyof those things?
And I truly don't, becausehumanity is humanity.
But I also feel like to not betransparent with somebody or, to
be totally honest, is failingthem.
So I did tell her, you know, ifanything would cause me pause,
it would be a man who has ahistory of abuse.
(33:45):
Would I say absolutely not, noway, no.
But would it sit well with me?
I can't pretend that it would.
That's probably the one thingthat was my holdup, and she and
I talked about it for quite awhile and she said you know what
they go through.
You know the psyche valve thatI went through.
(34:05):
They have to go through thosethings as well.
And she said I'm telling you, aman who's been under those
Abusive yes situations, or hasbeen accused of something like
that, or has been in that way inthe last 10 years, isn't even
going to be a part of ourprogram because we're not
touching it.
That you know.
So that was helpful to me, butalso I had to let go of that at
(34:28):
the same time, so it was healingto me at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
So, yeah, so you go through those evaluations and
when do they tell you whatyou're about to do?
As far as with with the chainand all that, how that all
worked out.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Uh, mid to late November, and so the surgery was
scheduled at that's.
When we scheduled it and weknew so it was December 13th.
So they call me and they said,okay, we'll work.
They, they still don't.
And I still, at this moment,don't grasp.
He's like we're working on achain.
Well, again, this is not mylife story, so I don't know
about what this chain means.
And he said and you're thestart of it, and if you?
(35:08):
Um, he said, it all happenedbecause you were random.
And I was like, okay, well, itwasn't random in my soul, but it
was random, and we're going tosend you a DNA test and if, if,
if, this DNA test matches thisfirst person, we think we have a
chain set up which will be thelargest in Ohio state's history.
Again, that doesn't mean a lotto me, but I'm like, okay, but
(35:31):
what are the?
He's like, we don't know ifyour DNA is going to match him,
because this particularrecipient needs very certain
antibodies, et cetera.
And I was like, okay, send itto me.
So they FedEx it to me, I get itthe next day.
I'm excited because I just, Ijust think, as a mother, if this
was my child, I don't know whothis person is at this time.
I don't want to wait.
(35:52):
Go do it today, right?
I'm thinking from what hisfamily must feel.
So I go the next morning andcause I do some fasting and, um,
have the blood test drawn tosee if we're matches.
And I get it sent, they, andtwo days later they said it's a
miracle of miracles, lo andbehold, you are a perfect match.
So so you're a perfect match tosomeone you have no idea who
(36:18):
this is.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And because you, you know so.
So I guess what I have learnedjust through some research and
from listening to your otherpodcasts that you'd done, you
know, a chain is, you know Iwant to give my kidney to Kim
because, um, she's my wife,because she's my wife, but maybe
it's not a match.
But I don't want to give akidney to you, right, because I
(36:44):
don't know you, right, andthat's how a lot of people are
and that's fine.
But what it took was someonelike you who said no, I just
want to give the kidney becauseI want to give life to someone,
I don't care who it is.
So you're a match for Kim, I'ma match for Kim, I'm a match for
whoever, for Johnny.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Well, because you're still willing.
Hey, I can't save my wife'slife, but I'm still willing to
donate it, so I'll give it tosomebody else.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
As long as my wife gets one yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Okay, so that's, that's the chain.
So you, you kind of learn aboutthis, not fully comprehending
it, because you're focused onwhat's next for you, right?
Which is the surgery.
Yeah, so talk about that.
They schedule the surgery,everything.
All the stars are in line.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
There's going to be 10 people total 10 people
receiving, so 20 people totalinvolved Going through surgery
Going through surgery within twodays.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Within two days.
Within two days, so you go intosurgery.
You're the very first one, soyou are the start of this chain.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Everything is reliant upon your surgery to go well
that was stressful, knowing thatyou know you're the start of
this.
This happens, it's all gonnadomino because of you.
I'm telling you, I'm wearing amask at work.
I, because I have to work upuntil right, I am so.
So we ended up, we had a smalltrip planned.
We ended up canceling.
I'm like I can't get on anairplane.
If I don't do this, then it'snot just one person affected.
(38:08):
This isn't about me.
So we ended up canceling somethings just out of precaution.
We weren't asked to do thosethings, we just, you know
heavens, that's somebody's life.
I can't take that chance.
So there were some precautionswe took just to make sure we
weren't sick, because if there'sfever or anything else, one
thing had gone wrong with any ofthose 20 people, it was that I
mean, it could have gone untilthat point, but it would have
stopped.
(38:28):
And um, and I know there wasblood work done even the night
before with some of them and itjust somehow they just kept
lining up and um, I didn'trealize at the time what a
medical miracle it was to haveall of that line up and it's a
phenomenal feat by I want to say, god too, but obviously the
(38:50):
Ohio State University WexnerCenter.
To put that all together isphenomenal.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
So yeah, I'm the first one and, um, my husband or
that, go ahead do you have anyidea how many doctors are
performing all these surgeries,because I'm sure it's not just
one.
No, it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
There were we uh, I know at least four and there
were tons of surgical nurses aswell.
Um, but I I was only like metand got to talk to and have
repeated conversations with one,the head, the head transplant
doctor there.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Was the surgery painful?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
I was asleep?
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay, so everything, everything went good.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
It did.
The surgery went well, um, forme and for my recipient.
Um, I I remember going down thehallway because I didn't
realize again how big of a dealthis was for the hospital, until
there were cameras in my face.
As I'm being rolled down thehospital, I looked at my husband
like I just wanted to give mykidney away and, as you can
(39:52):
imagine, my husband is a farmerwho can go all day without
speaking to anybody because he'syou know.
So he's just like what is allthis?
Um, but yeah, surgery went well.
Um, doctors came out and toldhim it went well.
Um, if they had said when, ifmy in my kidney was put into my
recipient, it was producingurine before they could even get
(40:13):
the clamps off to do it.
So it was churning immediatelyand his life was already.
He was already healthier beforehe was even sewn up.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
So that's amazing.
Yeah, I mean all those thingsthat lined up, all those stars
aligned.
you know, because you heard thiscall right you heard this call
of you need to do this, and thenevery you know, having the
right doctors and nurses andeverybody in place and all those
recipients and all those otherdonors to give too, right, I
mean, what an amazing, selflessact to be able to be a part of
(40:42):
that.
So you get out of surgery, talkabout coming out of surgery,
and then they gave you theopportunity to meet the
recipient.
Right, can you talk about that?
Speaker 4 (40:52):
So the first day my surgery was at 7 am.
We don't get out of bed thatfirst day.
And then the next morning I wasdoing some walking and cause I
was going to go home the stayingin the hospital is not the fun
treat you might think it is Um,so I was going to go home and so
I was doing all the walking Icould and I would pass the room,
and every time I would pass acertain room I'd be like Hmm
(41:15):
cause you don't know who yourrecipient is, right, there's no,
there's no expectation.
And it came from me, like, ifthat's another thing they ask
you is, do you have anexpectation to me?
And I was like a hundredpercent, no, this is a gift,
nothing is owed to me, they oweme nothing.
But if they want to, I am ahundred percent open to it.
So that's Fridays of surgery,saturday, we're doing the
walking and trying to eat anddoing all those things.
(41:35):
And then, um, sunday, myhusband got the room packed up
and we're getting ready to leaveto head home and, um, the nurse
comes in my room and says I,just your recipient, would like
to meet you.
There's a and they they're somaking sure you know there's no
pressure for you.
And, um, cause everybody elsecan somewhat meet their person,
cause there's a connection,right, and I was like, was like,
(41:57):
oh, if, if they're up for it,I'm still using these pronouns
because I don't know, right, andI need their pronouns.
And I said they're up for it ahundred percent, but there's no
pressure from my side either.
And she's like okay, um, I justwant to give you a little bit
of a warning before you go.
And I'm thinking, oh no, but she, she said um, your recipient is
a young man and he's deaf.
(42:20):
And that's when I feel myhusband's energy behind me.
I just feel him, what?
And I kind of look back at himand I'm just smiling from ear to
ear and I'm like, oh, these Godwings right.
And she looks at me, she goesoh, my goodness, is that okay?
And I was like, no, that's morethan okay.
(42:40):
But I don't say anything to herabout why it's okay.
And I said, okay, let's go doit.
And um, so we go back to thatroom that we kept passing that
um is my recipient and um, it'sa young man who um?
is graduate, um, and he and hisand his father was in there and
(43:04):
his sister was in there, and soI walked in and I was just, you
know, so good to meet you.
My name is Sam, and how are youfeeling?
So I'm signing these things tohim and his, his wife and his
sister, just lose it, just loseit.
And and he responds verballybecause he lost his hearing in
(43:26):
childhood, which means typicallywhen somebody loses their
hearing late, a little bit laterin life, once they've learned
to speak, they can speak prettywell.
So he responds verbally to meand I at this time I don't know
that he's lost it in childhood.
You know, I thought he wasfully deaf and I was just, and
he's doing great, and it wasjust so fun to talk to him and
his family and talk about how hehad produced over five gallons
(43:50):
of urine in that 24 hours, thatfirst 24 hours, nearly six.
He looked amazing, he was up,he, she said, he said I even got
dressed for you this morning,you know, because they leave a
little bit later than we do,later than we do, and you know I
had the, I looked over and soanyway, I didn't want.
(44:13):
You know how do you thanksomebody for that?
It's so uncomfortable for themand I just told you, you know
you owe me nothing.
What a gift, what an honor tolook at a person and say I can
do this for you because ofsomething I have.
And so the nurses were sobbingand the nurses looked at me and
they're like you know, we dothis all the time and we don't
ever cry.
She goes.
That was too much.
That was too much and I said youknow, that's just, that's just
the God we serve.
You know when we, when it's hisplan, wow, it blows your mind
(44:38):
Right, and how lucky are we?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
The cool thing that I think about that is that it's
like full circle.
You know you get that callingthat you decide to listen to and
do, and then all of a suddenyou go and meet the recipient
and he's deaf and it's like Godprepared you how many years ago
for this.
I just think it's such a coolthing.
(45:00):
Not that you need theconfirmation, but it's
confirmation.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
It's so beautiful, it's the gift, it's like a
little gift from God.
And then I feel that way aboutmost of the any trials in our
life, if they're all experiencesthat we can still use for his
glory.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
So, yeah, yeah, that that's amazing.
When I heard that I was likethat, you're right, that's full
circle.
I mean everything that you wentthrough as a child and then you
go to school and you learn signlanguage and then you live your
life as a, as a servant leader,giving you know, raising your,
raising your children.
You know going in and doing thedevelopmental disabilities, and
(45:38):
that takes a special heart Ihave.
I had an aunt who passed awayabout five years ago and I've
got an uncle whose health is notgreat now, but both of them
have mental disabilities.
So I was raised around peoplewith disabilities.
I was raised watching thespecial Olympics and I think it
gives you a whole newperspective on people and on on
(46:05):
people and on um.
You know the difficulties thatwe face as as normal healthy
individuals.
And they just put it intoperspective because my, my aunt
Susie and my uncle Dave alwayshad a smile on their face.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
You know, they didn't know any different right.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
And so much joy and all of all of these individuals
and the challenges that theyface, that they don't even know
are challenges, and it takes aspecial heart, like yours, you
know, to be able to help and, to, you know, allow these
individuals to prosper.
You know, talk about with theSpecial Olympics some of the
(46:43):
things that you're doing up inMercer County, because there's
some unique things that youtalked about on the other
podcast that I don't know thatall Special Olympics are doing
and all the developmentaldisabilities places are doing,
but you've got some reallyunique things going on up there,
right.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
We have a delegation, that is, we live in a community
where the support for those inSpecial Olympics and served by
the board of DD is phenomenal.
We know how lucky we are.
You know our superintendent atMercer DD.
He sees the good in what itmeans and how it benefits not
(47:23):
only our folks but our communityand because of that we are able
to really excel.
So, yeah, when I first startedthere, we had bowling and
basketball sometimes and youknow, and each I just feel like
we've been so lucky in the sensethat it just keeps growing and
I I know it's a lot and I'm soblessed and I'm so tired and I'm
(47:46):
so blessed.
So, yeah, so right.
You know we just ended.
We have two basketball teams Now.
We have a skills team for ourfolks who can't dribble or can't
really understand the conceptof five on five basketball,
right.
And then we have ourcompetitive team for our folks
who can, because there's bothRight.
It's a spectrum of people withdifferent abilities.
And then we have ourpowerlifting team.
(48:06):
Our powerlifting team does itvery well.
We just had a meet in ChampaignCounty this weekend.
We have our.
We have two cheer teams, aunified cheer team.
Those are usually typicallywith our cheerleader, our ladies
who maybe need a little morehelp, and they, of course, they
work with.
Actually, we have one of ourcheerleaders is from St Henry,
(48:28):
who one of our unified partners.
She was a cheerleader at StHenry for their team and then
came in and works with anotherone of our.
Special Olympics cheerleaders asher partner.
So they work together and thenyou have our.
Then we have our cheerleaderswho do a little, can do a little
bit more, and so they have.
So they have our traditionalchair.
So okay, so two cheer teams.
We have flag football.
(48:48):
That was new last year.
We're going to be competitivethis year.
We're excited about it.
Um, I don't want to be, I'llget in trouble.
Unified golf, so that againinvolves the community.
So I have 24 golfers, whichmeans I have 24 partners, and
these are.
So they play with somebody from, um, the community who just
wants to golf and then has, andthen they kind of coach my, my
sons do that Like it's, it's.
(49:09):
That's an amazing program aswell.
We have bowling, we haveequestrian, which is one of my,
one of my favorites to get towatch.
Did I have gosh?
I hope I named them.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Oh volleyball.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
We have unified volleyball again, which
incorporates players fromdifferent teams and they meet up
with ours and we travel aroundthe state and get to play, and
so we have a very active program.
Um, the community is veryactive in our program.
Um, the support of thecommunity, um, you know, it's
not free.
It's free for our athletes, butit's not free to run and to to
(49:44):
have a program like this costmoney.
Um, not to me, it doesn't'tcome to me, but to our athletes.
We provide all the uniforms, weprovide the horse training, we
provide all of those things.
It speaks so highly of MercerCounty and how they see the
value in our individuals and intheir lives and in the value of
our people.
Yeah, for them to to have theseexperiences.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, to grow and to prosper and to be able to do all
the things that we all take forgranted.
And what a special area, Ithink, the farming community in
general, whether it's PrebleCounty, wayne County, indiana,
mercer, dark, all Glaze, allthose counties up up you know
the state line from Indiana andOhio.
You know there's just somethingunique about the farming
community and, uh, you know thehard work and the dedication and
(50:29):
the caring for others and, andyou know, just wanting others to
succeed and and to be able tohave the opportunities that we
have.
Um, you know it's an amazing,it's an amazing thing and you're
doing amazing work.
Um, it's, it's, uh, you know,like I said, as I, as I grew up,
um, with both sides of myfamily, with Susie and David,
(50:49):
and seeing those things andwatching them compete and being
at Special Olympic events wheremy Uncle Dave, or, when I was in
college, we would have to.
As a football team at theUniversity of Dayton, we would
go to Special Olympic events atWellcome Stadium and we would
have to stand at the end of the100-meter dash to stop them as
they ran, because they wouldjust keep running.
(51:10):
And it was so cool becausethey'd run and they'd give you a
big hug at the end.
You know they didn't know anybetter and it was just, you know
, such a rewarding thing to be apart of.
So a lot of work for you, butvery rewarding.
Um, two final questions as weland this plane.
Um, is there, is there a Bibleverse?
Is there a quote?
Is there something when, whenthings are challenging in your
(51:33):
life, uh, and there'sdifficulties, is there something
that you lean on, that that yougo back on and you say, nope,
this, this is where I'm at, thisis what I stand for and this is
, you know, this is what gets methrough.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Um, that's a good question.
I will tell you and we just hadthis conversation I'm in my
family.
Um, I think life is.
This is real life.
Right, it's not.
Every day is perfect.
There were days we wake up notfeeling like who we want to feel
like, or not accomplishing whatwe want to accomplish, or the
(52:06):
heartaches of just life loss.
You know, for me to have thatmoment of you know I didn't have
a typical family life which Ithink is unfair to say, because
I feel like we never know what'sgoing on in someone's home,
even in our beautifulcommunities.
You never know what people arereally dealing with, right and?
(52:27):
But no matter who we are, whatwe've lived or what we've gone
through, we are beloved, andthat is, you are beloved by the
creator of this world, beloved,and that, to me, has always been
something to fall back on.
If I'm not, if I don't feellike I'm enough, or I've been
(52:49):
told I'm not enough, or you'vebeen told you're not enough, you
are a beloved child of God.
That is enough for me.
That's enough.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
That's amazing.
If you could sit on a parkbench and have a conversation
with someone living or deceased,who would it be and why?
Speaker 4 (53:11):
Oh, it wouldn't be impressive to anybody but myself
I.
It would be my grandfather,which makes no sense to anybody
else.
But that hands down.
No questions asked.
It would be him because he was,until I met my husband, the
best man I ever knew.
He was kind and gentle and goodand hardworking and would tease
(53:34):
me just in the perfect way thatit made you feel more loved,
and I wanted to marry someonelike him.
And not only did I get to dothat, he milked the same cows my
grandpa did, and that's not whyI married him.
And not only did I get to dothat, he, he milked the same
cows my grandpa did so andthat's not why I married him.
But yeah, he was just, he wasjust a good person and um, who
(53:56):
grew up a farmer in Kentucky andended up ended up in Preble
County farming here.
But, um, yeah, that's that's itwould be, and that is not an
impressive answer.
I apologize.
No, no, in your story it isbecause he was that stability,
that you didn't have at home.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yeah, yeah, he, he just, he just gave you.
Speaker 4 (54:16):
um, there were not a lot of wonderful male influences
in my life and, uh, he was yourfather.
Yeah, he was, he was, he wasyeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I did a little research, came across the Bible
verse.
I think that, uh, embodies youand your spirit, and it it's
Matthew 25, verse 40.
It says, truly, I tell you,whatever you did for one of
these, the least of thesebrothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me, and I think thatembodies you, that embodies
your spirit, that embodies yourentire life to this point of
(54:45):
what you've done.
Everything you've done has beennot perfect, right, you admit
that none of us are perfect buthas been to his glory, you know,
to serve him.
You answered that call, right,and and you minimize it a little
bit by, you know, I'm given akidney, you know, but that's a
big deal, you know that that isa big deal and, um, you're very
(55:08):
humble, you're very kind and, um, I can't thank you enough for
coming and it was an hour and 15minutes, hour and a half,
what'd it take you?
Speaker 4 (55:17):
It's an hour and 20, but I did it in an hour and 15.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Sounds like a Mercer County driver.
Sounds like my father-in-law.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
the lead foot like my father-in-law, the lead foot.
Kim, you got anything to add.
I do have one last thing to add, because, with this podcast, a
lot of times Dan interviewspeople who have are going
through the fire and themgetting through it on the other
side.
But in your situation, youchose to go through that fire to
(55:48):
donate that kidney, which showsso much of your life.
You're just a servant too, butwhat are some of the
consequences that you havebecause you gave that kidney?
Are there side effects that youhave to deal with the rest of
your life because this is a firethat you chose to go through?
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Sure, I have to be like there's no more Advil.
There's no.
All medications have to beclosely watched.
I have to drink two gallons ofwater a day.
To me they're minimal as awoman.
There is a new scar?
That is not.
It's not in the place.
I would love it to be.
(56:28):
But beyond that, um, my health.
I went to the gym this morning.
I ran two miles this morning.
I really, at this point we'rethree months in now um, there's
no difference that I can tell no, none.
But then they're not going to.
And I want to tell anybodywho's even considering this um,
they're not going to.
And I want to tell anybodywho's even considering this
(56:49):
they're not going to let you doit if they think there's going
to be any negative health effectfor you.
Beyond those simple things,because of course, they want
their numbers to look good,right, because then people will
continue to do it.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
They're not going to allow you If you are not a good
candidate they're going to tellyou and you're not going to do
it, so just I want to encouragethat too.
Speaking of that, if someonehears this story or has had it
on their heart to to potentiallydonate a kidney, how, how do
people make that connection?
Is it talking to their doctor?
Is it talking to someonespecifically?
What's?
(57:23):
What's the way to make thatconnection?
Speaker 4 (57:24):
So for me, I just Googled um Ohio state kidney
transplant center and the allthe links in the phone numbers
are all right there and they doan amazing.
They're very communicative.
They don't have to wait sixmonths for them to reply to you.
Um, they do a nice job ofthey're going to send you an
email right away and say watchthis and then get back to us.
Um, you watch it and if youdon't, if it's not something
(57:45):
that you want to do, they do notcontact you again.
They wait for you to call back.
So there's no pressure.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
Would you do it again ?
Speaker 4 (57:51):
A hundred times, a hundred times over.
There is nothing that has postsurgery that has been anything
to me.
But a blessing I to be chosenfor this.
I just when people say thingslike this.
That's why it throws me off alittle bit, because what a
blessing to be chosen to get tosave someone's life.
I just what a blessing and I'mexcited.
(58:13):
On April 6th, ohio State has awhere they bring all of their
transplant individuals in.
So that's coming up in a coupleweeks and my recipient, his
wife, texted me and said we'regoing to be there, are you guys
going to come and we're going togo to dinner afterwards and
just to get to watch their livesflourish as this young couple,
(58:34):
I'm so grateful to be given thatopportunity.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Well, and I think it says so much about you, how
humble you are, for you to saythat you were chosen.
It's not about you making thatdecision and doing it.
It's the sheer fact that Godasked you to do it and you did
it so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (58:54):
It's an amazing story .
You're an amazing woman.
I thank you again for comingdown and having this
conversation with us andhopefully maybe we formed a
friendship here that when we'reback up in the area maybe we can
get together for lunch or meetyour husband.
Speaker 4 (59:11):
I love that and I would show you all of the cool
Special Olympics things.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
We've got some great.
Speaker 4 (59:15):
St Henry Special Olympic athletes that you may
probably know their families socool.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Well, good, well, everybody.
If you're not sharing this show, I don't know what you're
listening to.
This one's powerful.
If you're not sharing this show, I don't know what you're, what
you're listening to.
This one's powerful.
Um, you know the impact thatSam has had on so many people's
lives beyond the kidneys uh,with the special Olympics and,
and, and those families who, whohave heard this story, and I
think that's part of part ofthat Sam is, you know, the, the,
(59:42):
the notoriety and and just likecoming here and being on the
podcast and being on the armyand normal folk.
I think that's that's part ofhis process.
For you, yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:50):
I had to come to terms with that.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:52):
Cause I had to pray about that.
When I was first asked, like Idon't know, this, I'm not
looking for and my husband, Italked about it and I said, you
know, I, it really was on myheart Like, but this is being
asked of you too.
This is not about you and itnever has been about you from
the beginning.
This is his plan.
So, and you know, and I thinkit's anything in life that
you're doing you never knowwho's going to hear something
that heard, something that, um,brings him glory.
(01:00:14):
And if that does, then hey,it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Well, thanks again everybody,go out and be tempered.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Hi, this is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
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(01:00:45):
Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years.
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt.
This is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
it's your home, you expect morelike the great service and
selection you'll get fromCatron's Glass.
Final replacement windows fromCatron's come with a lifetime
warranty, including accidentalglass breakage replacement.
Also ask for custom showerdoors and many other products
(00:20):
and services.
Call 962-1636.
Locally owned, with localemployees for nearly 30 years,
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Speaker 2 (00:30):
Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we
explore the art of findingbalance in a chaotic world.
Join us as we delve intoinsightful conversations,
practical tips and inspiringstories to help you navigate
life's ups and downs with graceand resilience.
We're your hosts, dan Schmidtand Ben Spahr.
Let's embark on a journey tolive our best lives.
This is Be Tempered.
(00:51):
What's up everybody.
Welcome to the Be Temperedpodcast, episode number 48.
Wow, ben, your voice changed.
Today we have, instead of Ben,we have my lovely wife Kim
joining us.
Ben is on the other side of theglass because we've got a
little bit of a specialconnection today with our guest
(01:12):
and I want to read a littlebrief intro to kind of set the
tone.
And what I'll tell everyone isthe story that you're going to
hear today, from childhoodthrough growing up, raising a
family and through what mostrecently happened in November
and December is truly remarkable.
(01:33):
It's a story that both you andI heard on a podcast and brought
us both to tears and truly mademe feel like I'm not doing
enough, and I mean thatsincerely, because it's truly
remarkable.
But what we're here today is totalk about the story, to talk
(01:56):
about faith, to talk aboutadversity, and I'm excited for
you all to hear from Sam.
So today we have the privilegeof sitting down with someone
whose heart for service andcommunity knows no bounds.
Sam Fletterjohn is the SpecialOlympics Coordinator in Peer
Support at the Mercer CountyBoard of Developmental
Disabilities, where she'sdedicated herself to empowering
(02:18):
and advocating for athletes andindividuals with disabilities.
But her impact does not stopthere.
Most recently, sam made anincredible, life-changing
decision to become a kidneydonor, setting off a remarkable
10-person transplant chain atOhio State's Wexner Medical
Center.
Her selfless act has not onlychanged lives, but served as a
(02:40):
testament to what truegenerosity looks like.
Beyond her work, sam and herhusband have raised their family
on a farm, instilling in theirchildren the values of hard work
, resilience and service toothers.
Sam, we are honored to have youon the Be Tempered podcast.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, we appreciate you making the trek down from
the Mercer County area, which isthe home of my beautiful wife,
kim, and so again, there's alittle bit of a connection there
that you don't really knowabout.
We've kind of been talkingabout it here this morning the
Mercer County connection, thefarming connection.
We're all the same age, we'reraising larger families.
(03:23):
You know all the challengesthat come with all those things.
But it's pretty remarkable, andyour story is remarkable.
How we start off every podcastis we like to start from the
beginning, and I think yourstory from the beginning will
show people your life and whyyou chose to do what you did and
what you're doing now.
So can you start off from yourchildhood and talk about what it
(03:45):
was like growing up?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Sure, so I grew up, obviously pretty locally.
I was actually Allglaize County, so I work in Mercer, but I
lived in Allglaize County inOhio and I was born to a very
young mother.
I was her second child and shewas I'm not quite 18 when I was
born.
So that was all I knew.
(04:07):
So it was great, right, youdon't know what you don't know,
but I was born.
My father was significantlyolder than my mom, significantly
, being my mom was a teenagerand my dad was 27.
Okay, yeah.
So, yeah, my parents did end upmarrying and several years later
(04:28):
had two more children.
Um, that marriage, um was, fromthe beginning, pretty tough, as
you can imagine.
It didn't come from the bestcircumstances, um, and there was
a lot of mental health issueswith my where my father was
concerned, um, my fatherconcerned, um, my father um was
raised well.
He was the child of farmers andum he, my mother, was not
(04:54):
raised so much.
She is the daughter of a germanimmigrant and who married
american soldier that she barelyknew because she was pregnant.
Um, so they're very differentupbringings, very different
expectations of what this wasgoing to look like.
And, needless to say, thatmarriage did not last and it
finally ended when I was 14years old, and it needed to.
(05:19):
It needed to for the mentalhealth of both of them, and then
my mom quickly went intoanother marriage.
That was not healthy.
It was a bit, not a bit.
I'm trying to minimize it and Ican't to be fair.
It was an abusive marriage, butI grew up with although there
(05:44):
was chaos my entire life in myhome.
There was also this underlyingno matter where we were
financially, no matter where wewere within the bounds of our
home, this expectation of lovingothers wherever they are.
And for all the things thatwere chaotic in my life, there
were also lessons that weretaught to me.
All the things that werechaotic in my life, there were
(06:07):
also lessons that were taught tome.
My grandparents were farmers inPreble County, right across the
line here, and I spent most ofmy summers with my grandparents.
So they were a wonderfulstability to me as a child and
were very influential in thekind of the way I run my own
household and the way I parentand the way I feed my household.
You know they instilled allthose things, and in my mother
(06:29):
as well.
My mother wasn't truly raised.
I always say that she just kindof kept aging Right, she wasn't
really aged or she just aged.
She didn't really, wasn'treally raised, and my, my
paternal grandparents did a nicejob of teaching her.
You know they taught her thethings that most of us learn in
small communities how to can,how to garden, how to do all
those things.
(06:49):
Therefore, I know how to dothose things when in reality, if
you look at my life story, Ishouldn't know how to do those
things.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
Okay.
So we were very blessed to havethem as a consistent people who
loved us consistently.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So so was it.
Was it a challenge when you,you know you spent the time with
your grandparents and you talkabout, you know the impact that
they had on your life.
Was it hard when you went backhome?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Um, no, because I love my siblings so much and I'm
a protector by nature, and itwas usually me wanting to go
home to make sure they were okay.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Because of things that were going on.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:31):
Just just worried a little bit about you know where
they were now.
Once my parents divorced, I was14, you kind of stopped doing
that as much.
Most of my childhood was that,and I can't even say that all of
my childhood was chaotic,because you're a child, it's
your norm right.
And a lot of our kids don't knowthis until they leave that and
be like, oh, that was not okay.
So I can't say that mychildhood was horrible because
(07:53):
it's all you know and we hadespecially as siblings.
There's going to be bondsbetween siblings that are
different.
When you are living that lifetogether, you're each other's
safety zone.
Living that life together, um,you're, you're each other's
safety zone, you know, I, um, Itell stories of um.
You know, when my mom remarriedinto out of desperation, I
(08:14):
think it just her mental, shewas not in a place to do that
and it just.
You know, she was still veryyoung when I was 14, you can
imagine, right.
So, um, there was a lot ofneeding to do some protecting
within that, within my home, andI was that person, and for not
only my mother, um, but for myyounger siblings as well, and I
wasn't always good at it.
I was 14, 15, 16.
, um, uh.
(08:34):
But we, we went from onechaotic situation that was just
mental health not just that wasmental health to full onon
physical abuse and chaos.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So you know, and you're 14, 15, 16 years old, you
know you're going throughschooling, which there's
challenges in school and friendsand all those things, and then
you come home to you knowphysical abuse.
Talk about how you were able tomentally not only be there for
your siblings but, I assume,also for your mom.
Speaker 4 (09:10):
Yeah, yeah.
So, um, I don't remember a timewhen I wasn't protective of my
mother.
Um, when my parents, when I wasa child, verse all the way till
now even and she doesn't needme to be that now, but it's hard
for me not to be I will alwaysbe slightly defensive of her.
Did she get it all right?
(09:32):
Absolutely not, but she waslearning along the way.
She was learning about how tobe a mom when she wasn't really
mothered.
So there's a lot of grace there.
But yeah, there were timeswhere she was the brunt of his
abuse.
It wasn't to us, especially tome.
He was always slightly afraidof me.
Maybe that's a strong word.
I could get him to back downwhen I walked into a room At 14
(09:56):
years old 15 at that time butyeah, I can't explain it to you,
Nobody can explain it to you.
I know you've heard thesestories before, but I just to
you, Nobody can explain it toyou.
I know you've heard thesestories before, but I just you
know I'm 15 years old and I'dwake up at 4.30 in the morning
because I knew there had beenchaos the night before and I
would go out and make sure welived in town at the time her
(10:17):
clothes would be all over ourfront yard.
He had taken things that herdad had left her and broken them
in the yard.
So I'd get up and I'd bringthem all back in the house and
clean them up, and and and thenthere was a contract that my mom
had a cleaning business andthere was contracts that needed
to be fulfilled but shephysically couldn't do them
Right.
So I would go three towns overbefore school, clean that
(10:40):
contract, come back, make sureeverybody else is going and
going to school, and then youpretend like you've got it all
together because you're 15 andthat's humiliating, right?
So, um, did anybody know?
I don't think so.
Um, I I assume the neighborsprobably saw the chaos.
Um, I got it up.
I remember picking it up beforethe light sun came up, but and?
(11:00):
Um?
So there were times like thatshe would come in my room and
hide I've hidden her in closets,I've hidden her in my bed and
he would come looking for her.
There were times when I wouldbe at school and you know, I'm
16, 17 years old at this timenow and my spirit's just like
(11:21):
you need to go home, you need togo home, you need to go home
and um to this day.
I truly believe had I not gonehome.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
My mother would be deceased.
He would have killed her.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
It was that bad.
It was that bad and you justhad a feeling, yeah, but I, you
know, to be fair, um, it's notlike it was a feeling out of
nowhere.
Do you see what I'm saying?
Like it was, it was thesethings every other day, it was
what's going to happen.
What's going to happen?
You're constantly living inthis fight or flight.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Um tension, tension, yeah, so you.
So you had this feeling and youwent home.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
I went, I walked home .
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So so talk about that situation.
What, what came of that?
I mean, he backed down to you.
Speaker 4 (12:05):
He did.
He left when I got there.
My mom was in the bedroom and heleft when I got there.
You know my mom is, she's atough cookie, she's been through
it all and he left.
There was actually an arrestafter that because there was
shown physical abuse and I don'twant to get too heavy, but if
(12:25):
you want to know the facts,there was a couple of arrests
and I ended up leaving, comingback.
The time just keeps moving andI ended up leaving for school,
came back on Christmas break,the first semester, and at that
time things had gotten so badbecause I was gone.
While I was gone not because Iwas gone and at that time my mom
and my two younger siblingswere um, living in a woman's
(12:48):
shelter Um, what that is.
He doesn't know where they'reat right, he just knows they're
gone in a shelter and so they'reprotected.
And um and I stayed there myfirst semester, home.
So I go to college and everyonethinks that, like I have my
life together, because I can, Ican make anybody believe that
Right and um and I come and Istay in a shelter and with my
(13:11):
mother, and then um time goes on, he breaks in a couple of times
it was a restraining order andhe, um is finally arrested again
, and I didn't mention thisbefore, but yeah, so then five
months later, he ended upcommitting suicide in jail.
Yeah, and you know, it's astrange place to be in the
(13:33):
middle of, because it's a liferight and also to feel safe for
the first time in several years.
It's a weird process to walkyourself through and to pray
through and to communicate.
And I remember all my youngersiblings.
My older sibling is she's only20 months older than me, but she
(13:53):
is already gone at this time.
She's at Ohio State, maybealready graduated Ohio State.
And to comfort them and Iremember just to to comfort them
, and I remember just, you know,I'm 18, still 18 at this time
Um, and they all just crawled inmy bed with they both just
crawled in my bed with me, andthey're teenagers at this time,
(14:14):
you know.
And we just cause.
What do you do?
How do you explain to somebodyyes, somebody died, but golly,
we feel safe.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And exhale it's, it's , it's a strange, that's a tough
, strange feeling.
Well, especially at that age, Imean tough for anybody, but all
that you had been through.
Let me ask you this as you'retalking, I'm thinking you know
we haven't even got to.
You know what's most, whatyou've most recently done.
But hearing your story like arethese the first times you've
told these?
Like out in public.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, it's not some especially.
You know, we're from a smalltown and my parent, my mom, has
has a beautiful life and she hasall the good that she has done
in the worst of times has comeback to her and the blessings on
her life you know have reallythey're beautiful Beauty, for
ashes it is.
She has a beautiful life and um, so it's hard for me a little
(15:12):
bit because we come from such asmall place.
So everybody knows everybodyand so I asked her permission
before I did this.
Um, I said you know that sheand she was.
Um, she said whenever you, thisis your life story and it's
yours to tell, and I'm nevergoing to be the person to tell
you, not to tell it.
If I could ask anything, it'sjust don't make me to be a
(15:33):
martyr or this woman who justcouldn't figure it out.
And I said how could I do that?
Because you're not that, you'renot, you were.
You know she did the best shecould for what she had and
really did a great job.
For me.
My youngest childhood memoriesare my mom serving in some
capacity.
She would drag all of us to thenursing home with her and just
(15:54):
visit people who had nobody.
This wasn't taught to her, itwas just her nature.
So, even in the worst of times,my mom's always been a giver,
always.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So so let me ask you where does your faith come from?
Like I look at you and I see ahalo around your head, I mean
what you went through as a childand to be essentially what you
said the protector.
You know whether you wanted tobe or not.
You, you, you are and you werethe protector.
But where did that faith comefrom?
Speaker 4 (16:29):
um, I, I mean we were still raised in church mom
would take us, I, but it was sochaotic.
I remember my dad just likemocking her, taking us to church
and going.
But I will tell you, my jesusis very real to me, very, very
real.
And, um, this is not.
I feel the presence of him inalmost every situation not and
(16:52):
um when that, when he's such areal part of your life,
explaining it to somebody whonot yourself, but who wouldn't
quite get it, it just makes youthey think you're crazy.
Or oh, oh, she's got that.
You know she doesn't have itall together, no, it's.
He's just very real.
And I, you know, I was justhaving a talk with my son the
(17:12):
other day about this.
I said I couldn't do this life,I can't imagine doing this life
, without that faith and thatconnection.
That sounds terrible.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Well, that's part of it.
When I heard your story that somuch of it hit home, because
for me, I teach religion classand trying to teach the kids to
have a relationship with God isabout talking to him all the
time and build that relationship.
It's like then you have thosemoments of when he speaks to you
and you're like I just know it.
I mean this is what I have todo, because I just I feel it and
I think that's what drawspeople so close to faith and
become more involved in theirfaith is because of those
feelings of knowing that he'salive and he's right here with
(18:01):
me.
So I just really need to hearthat.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Yeah, it's amazing as you're answering that question.
I just interviewed a coupleweeks ago, a lady named Deb
Tinsman and she was mostrecently diagnosed with cancer
and went through I mean, shejust came through all of her
chemo treatments.
I think in November is when shefinished up and she's in
remission right now.
But she answered that questionthe exact same way and, um, it's
(18:29):
just amazing, she, you know,she, she taught.
I asked her what you know, whatadvice would you give to
someone who's in the middle, orwho's been given the cancer
diagnosis or in the middle ofgoing through chemo treatments?
And she said I don't know howanyone could get through without
faith.
I can't imagine.
Yeah, and so it's.
(18:50):
It's pretty cool to be able tosit at this table and interview
different people that have hadcompletely different life
experiences, but to get the sameanswer.
That's pretty neat.
So you go through thatchildhood and thank you for
sharing that Cause.
I know that's not easy, youknow, and you're very humble.
Um, you're, you're amazing andwe're going to continue to climb
(19:11):
that ladder.
So you get out of college.
What's next for you?
What's your career look like?
What's your family look like?
Speaker 4 (19:17):
Kind of talk about that.
Well, let's be real here.
I didn't come out of thatunscathed, okay?
So you grew up in chaos and Imarried young.
Well, we won't go into becausewhy, but to a young man who had
a family that was perfect.
And, boy, was that a safety net?
Perfect, right, because who hasthat?
(19:38):
But when you grew up in thatkind of environment, you see
somebody with these marriedparents who are good people.
And I married very young andbecause, a, I wanted purity and
I wanted that safety, so we, Imarried young and obviously, um,
(19:59):
that didn't work out and, um,we had children, and with no
regrets, because I just feellike when you, even with our
mistakes, when we give them toGod, he is the master of making
it all so beautiful, puttingthose pieces together and of
grace and forgiveness and loveand um, work.
And that was a failure I wasn'tprepared for because I was not
(20:22):
going to repeat, it was notgoing to happen and guess what?
That happened, but I didn'trepeat because we have a
beautiful, I have a beautifullife with a man that I couldn't
have handpicked better.
So, yeah, so we have my husbandfarms and it's interesting to
(20:45):
me because my grandparents,obviously they're generational
farmers and they had brown Swisscows which, as you know, for
Mercer County, nobody has brownSwiss cows, right, everybody has
their black and white Holsteins.
And then I meet this, this manwho, um, is a Brown Swiss milk
dairy farmer and he's like, oh,you probably had never.
(21:07):
And I was like, no, this is youknow so.
And he, um, and it's just beena ride for the last 18 years.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
So you married a dairy farmer.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
Well, I married one, but we stopped milking two years
ago, after 85 years.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
How was that?
Speaker 4 (21:23):
It is.
I get to see my husband.
Sometimes we can leave and goto dinner before 7.30 PM.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
It was a.
It was a.
It was a bigger.
I took it harder than he didbecause we spent so much of our
I mean we weren't dating verylong before he needed me to help
him.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
So you know it's.
It was a huge part of our.
But he's much happier.
Sounds like a farmer.
Yeah yeah, kim has never heardthat I need you to go walk the
pig barn, yeah.
So, uh, with that, you've got afamily, you've got kids, so
talk about your kids a littlebit.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, and so together we raised five children.
My daughter was only four, sothat's you know, he's been so
influential in her life and theylove each other.
It's we've.
I would like to say I feel likewe've done a great job.
Our kids are all so close andum, I I am such a family
oriented person.
I I'm always hosting theparties at my house and getting
(22:15):
my extended, my siblings andtheir siblings, my kids, my
sisters.
Obviously I'm very close to mysiblings, so their children and
our, my children are are thickas thieves.
They're so tight and um.
So, yeah, they were raised um.
Three of them have two of theboys.
The boys graduated from Wrightstate and my um one son went to
Hobart welding school and and mydaughter, um, finished at
(22:37):
Xavier university last year, butshe is back at Xavier um doing
her graduate work.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Okay, what are you doing for work, as you're going,
as you're raising this family,as life's going on, talk about,
talk about what, what type ofbusiness she got into all those
things.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Sure.
So when my kids were little, Istayed home because all I really
truly wanted to do was be theirmommy and to give them the life
experiences that were good frommine I was.
So we did that and I taughtSunday school and did all those
things.
And then, um, when they got alittle bit older and um, my life
changed.
I went back to work and I didsome interpreting for the deaf
(23:14):
um a little bit when they wereyounger, just kind of freelance.
And then I went into socialwork.
I've done social work freelance, but that kind of went with the
interpreting.
And then I went and worked atan IFC in Minster, which is a
group home for those withdevelopmental disabilities, and
(23:35):
then did some things for theMedicaid system, working with
the elderly, um, and some socialwork.
And then I went and during thattime I volunteered for special
Olympics um in my County.
And then, um, six, seven yearsago, I went um and started
working full time for the County.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Okay, working in special Olympics?
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Yeah, that's the when I, when I first got hired in,
that was going to be 30% of myjob.
I would say it's 95% of my jobbecause we've just grown in and
just yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, so at some point in time now we're going to
get to how we found you.
Hold on a second, yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Before you start that , you graduated college?
With what kind of degree?
Social, social, okay, but partof it.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
You went in and took Deaf Studies was my major when I
first started.
Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Why Deaf Studies?
Speaker 4 (24:27):
It's fascinating.
To me it always was, as alittle girl.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
You didn't have anyone in your family that was
deaf.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
No, it was just something that always clicked to
me as a little girl and when Istruggled with language in high
other in high school, and Istruggled, I didn't do well in
Spanish and I didn't do well,but, um, that one, just that one
, just came to me and I justloved it and I loved the culture
because it's it's a culture aswell as, just as a language like
any other language has its ownculture, and the culture of the
deaf world is, um, just sointriguing to me yeah, did you
(24:56):
ever get to use it very much?
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Yeah, yeah, I did.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
I used to interpret in church a little bit and then
I would do, um, I would dopeople like what they would uh,
some of my deaf folks that wouldgo and do job interviews, I
would interpret those and thingslike that.
But, um, in this area afull-time work it's not, you
know, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I haven't used it in probably 15 years.
Yeah, that's a good point,cause that that ties the whole
score story together.
So, thank you, there's a reasonyou're here and been sitting on
the other side of the glass.
So now we get to a couple ofyears ago.
When, when did, when did youreceive that sign or that
(25:35):
calling from God, whatever itwas to make you want to do what
you did with your kidney?
Speaker 4 (25:43):
Um, it never something.
I never even thought aboutuntil maybe 18 months ago, less
than that.
Um, I, you know, everybody hassocial media and you see on
social media that somebody knowssomebody.
There's nobody who doesn't know.
If you don't know somebodydirectly, you know somebody
knows somebody.
And you see those things and Iwould scroll past like boy man,
I hope they get that.
(26:03):
And, you know, didn't thinkmuch of it.
And then there was a gentlemanlocally to me who has since got
his kidney just in the last twoweeks, who I thought well, I can
just call and see if I'm a, youknow, a match for him.
And so I called and they saidyou're not.
And I said, okay, just by myblood type, everything, they
knew immediately that I was nota match for him.
(26:25):
I said, oh, okay, no problem,so I'm.
I remember walking down ahallway and just feeling it in
my spirit You're not done.
That phone call was not the endof this.
You are not done.
Oh, I don't know anybody else.
Okay, and I think through life,when things are laid on your
spirit, when you are supposed todo something, you are not going
(26:49):
to have peace until you do it.
It's just, you know, yeah, andso it's on my mind.
But I have to be careful withthat, because I am an empath and
I also am a server and I haveto be balanced out on that
sometimes.
So I prayed about it andthought about it and said, lord,
take this from me.
If it's the same thing, if itis me just saying I can save
(27:11):
something, we're not doing that,because I have a job that 75
people rely on me to keep up onand I have children in college
and children starting out theirlives and buying houses.
I need to make sure this is aGod thing before I stop my life.
And so I reached out to OhioState and said, hey, I'm
actually still interested.
(27:32):
Is there any need for what Ihave?
And they said, well, come startthe testing work.
I said, well, hold on a second.
So Mike, my husband, and I hada conversation and, as I've
mentioned before, he is veryused to my personality.
Nothing really surprises himand he's always been the most
supportive.
He's right there beside me,through my things that I do for
(27:52):
Special Olympics, through theextras that we do when we give
in secret, he's always he getsit, which I'm blessed.
you know, to be equally yoked isa really big thing it is well,
it is very much so, but what washis initial reaction when you,
when you said this no onebelieves me, but I, when I, when
I say that he is, um, he is acritical thinker, where I am
(28:20):
more of an emotional thinker, sowe balance each other out, but
he holds me accountable in a waythat is um, respectful and so
loving.
Like you know, I'm his person.
So so, um, it was, I'll watch.
I'll watch it with you, causethey send you a video and you
have to watch it, and it talksabout what your caregiver is
going, cause the caregiver, he,he would be my person.
So the caregiver has to beavailable to you for two weeks
(28:41):
straight, 24 7 doesn't mean theyneed to be sitting right beside
you, just available if you needthem, right?
So he, you know, very muchinvolves him.
So we want.
I watched it alone and then Iremember we were laying in bed
one night.
I said, all right, let's watchthis.
And so we pulled up my phoneand we watched the video again.
He's like wow, they like wow,they do a great job.
They do a great job explainingthe risk, the benefits, the.
You know what it's going tolook like for both of us and, um
(29:03):
, he was like I said, I, I wantto go start the start, the blood
work.
I want to go start, you know,and he was like, okay, he's like
, but I'm going with you, so he,so that he could hear all these
things firsthand, because hethinks that I might make it less
than for myself.
So, um, so we did.
Yeah, we started.
They send me.
I like I told everybody Icarried around a big jug of
(29:24):
urine for to work and put it inmy car.
It was cold outside I didn'thave to put it in the work
refrigerator.
And, um, yeah, a couple oftrips to Columbus.
Luckily, we could go to Limafor a lot of it, but a couple of
trips to Columbus, but stillminor, I mean.
And when I was all done, theysaid, okay, we'll get ahold of
you if we have somebody.
I was like, oh well, I thoughtfor sure that, god, like I was
(29:44):
supposed to do this, I thoughtthis was going to be boom, boom,
boom.
Let's get it done.
I was like, oh, okay, and I said, well, I'd like to do this soon
, because during harvest myhusband is not available to me.
You know, I don't see him inthe light of day unless I'm
helping.
And they said, okay, when isharvest?
So I, you know these city folks, they don't know when harvest
(30:06):
is, and so I had told them thisis when it is.
And I thought, for sure, Iwould hear back right away.
They said, well, and I didn't.
I thought that's kind ofstrange.
So I got on my chart and I sentan email and they said, Sam,
while I'm working on something,please hang tight.
Oh, okay, and that was that.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you're hanging tight and this is what you're
going through the summer.
Yeah, and we're talking.
I mean, this is just 2024.
Yeah, yeah, last summer.
Speaker 4 (30:31):
It was less than a year ago, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
So you're going through the summer and it's got
to be on your mind.
It kind of yeah, I mean everyday.
You've kind of made thisdecision.
You're like, all right, god,here, you know, I'm ready Right.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
Was I wrong?
Did I not hear the voice?
Was this the same thing?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Because I would second guess it, if it's not
like right now, what's?
Happening Like God is you haveto be patient.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
I tell you what his, his perfect timing is not what I
think is perfect timing.
And it turns out he's alwaysright and I'm always wrong.
So at some point in time youeither become impatient or they
call you, right, right, they, um, I actually called them and I
said, hey, I, we were gettingready to plan a vacation and I
didn't.
My last thing would be like totell somebody no, you don't get
your life back because myhusband, I, went to Atlanta
beach, right?
So, um, I had called them andthey said, and.
(31:27):
And then Mike, the RN, who, whodoes all the scheduling for the
transplant center at Ohio state, said your ears must be burning
because we were just talkingabout you.
And he goes and Sam, I havesomething really special planned
here.
He said, but it's in thepreliminary stages and I can't
tell you about it yet.
But I just need to know are youa hundred percent on board, no
matter what?
(31:47):
And I was like oh, somethingspecial.
Okay, I thought I don't know whothis is going to.
I didn't think much of thatbecause I don't know beyond that
.
I know I'm supposed to do this.
I don't, I'm not educated in.
You know how it all works.
And, um, I said, okay, noproblem.
And he's like give me a coupleof weeks and I'll get back to
you and have a date.
He's like can you keep Decemberopen for me, are you?
(32:09):
Are you available in December?
I said I can do that and then acouple of weeks later he called
back and I got the news and Istill didn't.
Do you want to talk about that?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
Go go into that phone call andwhat that looked like, cause you
, you're going through harvest.
So you're still thinking you'vehad this conversation and
you're thinking, man, I wonderwhat this is, or who, who's this
going to?
Is this going to somebody?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
famous or what you know?
What is this?
Did you have any stipulationswith who it would go to?
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Yeah, who it would go to.
Yeah, so they, they do a nicejob at Columbus.
Um, they have a.
You have to go through a psyche, psyche evaluation to make sure
that you know this isunbeknownst to me.
This is a really big deal.
I didn't know it was a big deal, but I'm told it was a big deal
to do this to your body.
So you do go through a psycheevaluation and the social worker
comes in and she even asked myhusband to leave.
You know, they make sure likeno one's coercing you to do this
.
There's no like black marketthing going on.
There's.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
You know that kind of thing you don't get paid for it
.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
No, it is strictly yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, it
doesn't cost you anything, butit doesn't.
But it doesn't.
Uh, you know it doesn't pay um,that's very illegal yeah I
would think yeah um.
So she had asked me do you, doyou have a problem thinking?
You know, um, and you know ifit's a different nationality, if
it's a gender, sexuality,religion?
(33:23):
Do you have an issue with anyof those things?
And I truly don't, becausehumanity is humanity.
But I also feel like to not betransparent with somebody or, to
be totally honest, is failingthem.
So I did tell her, you know, ifanything would cause me pause,
it would be a man who has ahistory of abuse.
(33:45):
Would I say absolutely not, noway, no.
But would it sit well with me?
I can't pretend that it would.
That's probably the one thingthat was my holdup, and she and
I talked about it for quite awhile and she said you know what
they go through.
You know the psyche valve thatI went through.
(34:05):
They have to go through thosethings as well.
And she said I'm telling you, aman who's been under those
Abusive yes situations, or hasbeen accused of something like
that, or has been in that way inthe last 10 years, isn't even
going to be a part of ourprogram because we're not
touching it.
That you know.
So that was helpful to me, butalso I had to let go of that at
(34:28):
the same time, so it was healingto me at the same time.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
So, yeah, so you go through those evaluations and
when do they tell you whatyou're about to do?
As far as with with the chainand all that, how that all
worked out.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Uh, mid to late November, and so the surgery was
scheduled at that's.
When we scheduled it and weknew so it was December 13th.
So they call me and they said,okay, we'll work.
They, they still don't.
And I still, at this moment,don't grasp.
He's like we're working on achain.
Well, again, this is not mylife story, so I don't know
about what this chain means.
And he said and you're thestart of it, and if you?
(35:08):
Um, he said, it all happenedbecause you were random.
And I was like, okay, well, itwasn't random in my soul, but it
was random, and we're going tosend you a DNA test and if, if,
if, this DNA test matches thisfirst person, we think we have a
chain set up which will be thelargest in Ohio state's history.
Again, that doesn't mean a lotto me, but I'm like, okay, but
(35:31):
what are the?
He's like, we don't know ifyour DNA is going to match him,
because this particularrecipient needs very certain
antibodies, et cetera.
And I was like, okay, send itto me.
So they FedEx it to me, I get itthe next day.
I'm excited because I just, Ijust think, as a mother, if this
was my child, I don't know whothis person is at this time.
I don't want to wait.
(35:52):
Go do it today, right?
I'm thinking from what hisfamily must feel.
So I go the next morning andcause I do some fasting and, um,
have the blood test drawn tosee if we're matches.
And I get it sent, they, andtwo days later they said it's a
miracle of miracles, lo andbehold, you are a perfect match.
So so you're a perfect match tosomeone you have no idea who
(36:18):
this is.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
And because you, you know so.
So I guess what I have learnedjust through some research and
from listening to your otherpodcasts that you'd done, you
know, a chain is, you know Iwant to give my kidney to Kim
because, um, she's my wife,because she's my wife, but maybe
it's not a match.
But I don't want to give akidney to you, right, because I
(36:44):
don't know you, right, andthat's how a lot of people are
and that's fine.
But what it took was someonelike you who said no, I just
want to give the kidney becauseI want to give life to someone,
I don't care who it is.
So you're a match for Kim, I'ma match for Kim, I'm a match for
whoever, for Johnny.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Well, because you're still willing.
Hey, I can't save my wife'slife, but I'm still willing to
donate it, so I'll give it tosomebody else.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
As long as my wife gets one yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Okay, so that's, that's the chain.
So you, you kind of learn aboutthis, not fully comprehending
it, because you're focused onwhat's next for you, right?
Which is the surgery.
Yeah, so talk about that.
They schedule the surgery,everything.
All the stars are in line.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
There's going to be 10 people total 10 people
receiving, so 20 people totalinvolved Going through surgery
Going through surgery within twodays.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Within two days.
Within two days, so you go intosurgery.
You're the very first one, soyou are the start of this chain.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Everything is reliant upon your surgery to go well
that was stressful, knowing thatyou know you're the start of
this.
This happens, it's all gonnadomino because of you.
I'm telling you, I'm wearing amask at work.
I, because I have to work upuntil right, I am so.
So we ended up, we had a smalltrip planned.
We ended up canceling.
I'm like I can't get on anairplane.
If I don't do this, then it'snot just one person affected.
(38:08):
This isn't about me.
So we ended up canceling somethings just out of precaution.
We weren't asked to do thosethings, we just, you know
heavens, that's somebody's life.
I can't take that chance.
So there were some precautionswe took just to make sure we
weren't sick, because if there'sfever or anything else, one
thing had gone wrong with any ofthose 20 people, it was that I
mean, it could have gone untilthat point, but it would have
stopped.
(38:28):
And um, and I know there wasblood work done even the night
before with some of them and itjust somehow they just kept
lining up and um, I didn'trealize at the time what a
medical miracle it was to haveall of that line up and it's a
phenomenal feat by I want to say, god too, but obviously the
(38:50):
Ohio State University WexnerCenter.
To put that all together isphenomenal.
Speaker 3 (38:55):
So yeah, I'm the first one and, um, my husband or
that, go ahead do you have anyidea how many doctors are
performing all these surgeries,because I'm sure it's not just
one.
No, it's a lot.
Speaker 4 (39:07):
There were we uh, I know at least four and there
were tons of surgical nurses aswell.
Um, but I I was only like metand got to talk to and have
repeated conversations with one,the head, the head transplant
doctor there.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Was the surgery painful?
Speaker 4 (39:25):
I was asleep?
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay, so everything, everything went good.
Speaker 4 (39:30):
It did.
The surgery went well, um, forme and for my recipient.
Um, I I remember going down thehallway because I didn't
realize again how big of a dealthis was for the hospital, until
there were cameras in my face.
As I'm being rolled down thehospital, I looked at my husband
like I just wanted to give mykidney away and, as you can
(39:52):
imagine, my husband is a farmerwho can go all day without
speaking to anybody because he'syou know.
So he's just like what is allthis?
Um, but yeah, surgery went well.
Um, doctors came out and toldhim it went well.
Um, if they had said when, ifmy in my kidney was put into my
recipient, it was producingurine before they could even get
(40:13):
the clamps off to do it.
So it was churning immediatelyand his life was already.
He was already healthier beforehe was even sewn up.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
So that's amazing.
Yeah, I mean all those thingsthat lined up, all those stars
aligned.
you know, because you heard thiscall right you heard this call
of you need to do this, and thenevery you know, having the
right doctors and nurses andeverybody in place and all those
recipients and all those otherdonors to give too, right, I
mean, what an amazing, selflessact to be able to be a part of
(40:42):
that.
So you get out of surgery, talkabout coming out of surgery,
and then they gave you theopportunity to meet the
recipient.
Right, can you talk about that?
Speaker 4 (40:52):
So the first day my surgery was at 7 am.
We don't get out of bed thatfirst day.
And then the next morning I wasdoing some walking and cause I
was going to go home the stayingin the hospital is not the fun
treat you might think it is Um,so I was going to go home and so
I was doing all the walking Icould and I would pass the room,
and every time I would pass acertain room I'd be like Hmm
(41:15):
cause you don't know who yourrecipient is, right, there's no,
there's no expectation.
And it came from me, like, ifthat's another thing they ask
you is, do you have anexpectation to me?
And I was like a hundredpercent, no, this is a gift,
nothing is owed to me, they oweme nothing.
But if they want to, I am ahundred percent open to it.
So that's Fridays of surgery,saturday, we're doing the
walking and trying to eat anddoing all those things.
(41:35):
And then, um, sunday, myhusband got the room packed up
and we're getting ready to leaveto head home and, um, the nurse
comes in my room and says I,just your recipient, would like
to meet you.
There's a and they they're somaking sure you know there's no
pressure for you.
And, um, cause everybody elsecan somewhat meet their person,
cause there's a connection,right, and I was like, was like,
(41:57):
oh, if, if they're up for it,I'm still using these pronouns
because I don't know, right, andI need their pronouns.
And I said they're up for it ahundred percent, but there's no
pressure from my side either.
And she's like okay, um, I justwant to give you a little bit
of a warning before you go.
And I'm thinking, oh no, but she, she said um, your recipient is
a young man and he's deaf.
(42:20):
And that's when I feel myhusband's energy behind me.
I just feel him, what?
And I kind of look back at himand I'm just smiling from ear to
ear and I'm like, oh, these Godwings right.
And she looks at me, she goesoh, my goodness, is that okay?
And I was like, no, that's morethan okay.
(42:40):
But I don't say anything to herabout why it's okay.
And I said, okay, let's go doit.
And um, so we go back to thatroom that we kept passing that
um is my recipient and um, it'sa young man who um?
is graduate, um, and he and hisand his father was in there and
(43:04):
his sister was in there, and soI walked in and I was just, you
know, so good to meet you.
My name is Sam, and how are youfeeling?
So I'm signing these things tohim and his, his wife and his
sister, just lose it, just loseit.
And and he responds verballybecause he lost his hearing in
(43:26):
childhood, which means typicallywhen somebody loses their
hearing late, a little bit laterin life, once they've learned
to speak, they can speak prettywell.
So he responds verbally to meand I at this time I don't know
that he's lost it in childhood.
You know, I thought he wasfully deaf and I was just, and
he's doing great, and it wasjust so fun to talk to him and
his family and talk about how hehad produced over five gallons
(43:50):
of urine in that 24 hours, thatfirst 24 hours, nearly six.
He looked amazing, he was up,he, she said, he said I even got
dressed for you this morning,you know, because they leave a
little bit later than we do,later than we do, and you know I
had the, I looked over and soanyway, I didn't want.
(44:13):
You know how do you thanksomebody for that?
It's so uncomfortable for themand I just told you, you know
you owe me nothing.
What a gift, what an honor tolook at a person and say I can
do this for you because ofsomething I have.
And so the nurses were sobbingand the nurses looked at me and
they're like you know, we dothis all the time and we don't
ever cry.
She goes.
That was too much.
That was too much and I said youknow, that's just, that's just
the God we serve.
You know when we, when it's hisplan, wow, it blows your mind
(44:38):
Right, and how lucky are we?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
The cool thing that I think about that is that it's
like full circle.
You know you get that callingthat you decide to listen to and
do, and then all of a suddenyou go and meet the recipient
and he's deaf and it's like Godprepared you how many years ago
for this.
I just think it's such a coolthing.
(45:00):
Not that you need theconfirmation, but it's
confirmation.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
It's so beautiful, it's the gift, it's like a
little gift from God.
And then I feel that way aboutmost of the any trials in our
life, if they're all experiencesthat we can still use for his
glory.
Speaker 2 (45:17):
So, yeah, yeah, that that's amazing.
When I heard that I was likethat, you're right, that's full
circle.
I mean everything that you wentthrough as a child and then you
go to school and you learn signlanguage and then you live your
life as a, as a servant leader,giving you know, raising your,
raising your children.
You know going in and doing thedevelopmental disabilities, and
(45:38):
that takes a special heart Ihave.
I had an aunt who passed awayabout five years ago and I've
got an uncle whose health is notgreat now, but both of them
have mental disabilities.
So I was raised around peoplewith disabilities.
I was raised watching thespecial Olympics and I think it
gives you a whole newperspective on people and on on
(46:05):
people and on um.
You know the difficulties thatwe face as as normal healthy
individuals.
And they just put it intoperspective because my, my aunt
Susie and my uncle Dave alwayshad a smile on their face.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
You know, they didn't know any different right.
Speaker 2 (46:22):
And so much joy and all of all of these individuals
and the challenges that theyface, that they don't even know
are challenges, and it takes aspecial heart, like yours, you
know, to be able to help and, to, you know, allow these
individuals to prosper.
You know, talk about with theSpecial Olympics some of the
(46:43):
things that you're doing up inMercer County, because there's
some unique things that youtalked about on the other
podcast that I don't know thatall Special Olympics are doing
and all the developmentaldisabilities places are doing,
but you've got some reallyunique things going on up there,
right.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
We have a delegation, that is, we live in a community
where the support for those inSpecial Olympics and served by
the board of DD is phenomenal.
We know how lucky we are.
You know our superintendent atMercer DD.
He sees the good in what itmeans and how it benefits not
(47:23):
only our folks but our communityand because of that we are able
to really excel.
So, yeah, when I first startedthere, we had bowling and
basketball sometimes and youknow, and each I just feel like
we've been so lucky in the sensethat it just keeps growing and
I I know it's a lot and I'm soblessed and I'm so tired and I'm
(47:46):
so blessed.
So, yeah, so right.
You know we just ended.
We have two basketball teams Now.
We have a skills team for ourfolks who can't dribble or can't
really understand the conceptof five on five basketball,
right.
And then we have ourcompetitive team for our folks
who can, because there's bothRight.
It's a spectrum of people withdifferent abilities.
And then we have ourpowerlifting team.
(48:06):
Our powerlifting team does itvery well.
We just had a meet in ChampaignCounty this weekend.
We have our.
We have two cheer teams, aunified cheer team.
Those are usually typicallywith our cheerleader, our ladies
who maybe need a little morehelp, and they, of course, they
work with.
Actually, we have one of ourcheerleaders is from St Henry,
(48:28):
who one of our unified partners.
She was a cheerleader at StHenry for their team and then
came in and works with anotherone of our.
Special Olympics cheerleaders asher partner.
So they work together and thenyou have our.
Then we have our cheerleaderswho do a little, can do a little
bit more, and so they have.
So they have our traditionalchair.
So okay, so two cheer teams.
We have flag football.
(48:48):
That was new last year.
We're going to be competitivethis year.
We're excited about it.
Um, I don't want to be, I'llget in trouble.
Unified golf, so that againinvolves the community.
So I have 24 golfers, whichmeans I have 24 partners, and
these are.
So they play with somebody from, um, the community who just
wants to golf and then has, andthen they kind of coach my, my
sons do that Like it's, it's.
(49:09):
That's an amazing program aswell.
We have bowling, we haveequestrian, which is one of my,
one of my favorites to get towatch.
Did I have gosh?
I hope I named them.
Speaker 3 (49:21):
Oh volleyball.
Speaker 4 (49:21):
We have unified volleyball again, which
incorporates players fromdifferent teams and they meet up
with ours and we travel aroundthe state and get to play, and
so we have a very active program.
Um, the community is veryactive in our program.
Um, the support of thecommunity, um, you know, it's
not free.
It's free for our athletes, butit's not free to run and to to
(49:44):
have a program like this costmoney.
Um, not to me, it doesn't'tcome to me, but to our athletes.
We provide all the uniforms, weprovide the horse training, we
provide all of those things.
It speaks so highly of MercerCounty and how they see the
value in our individuals and intheir lives and in the value of
our people.
Yeah, for them to to have theseexperiences.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, to grow and to prosper and to be able to do all
the things that we all take forgranted.
And what a special area, Ithink, the farming community in
general, whether it's PrebleCounty, wayne County, indiana,
mercer, dark, all Glaze, allthose counties up up you know
the state line from Indiana andOhio.
You know there's just somethingunique about the farming
community and, uh, you know thehard work and the dedication and
(50:29):
the caring for others and, andyou know, just wanting others to
succeed and and to be able tohave the opportunities that we
have.
Um, you know it's an amazing,it's an amazing thing and you're
doing amazing work.
Um, it's, it's, uh, you know,like I said, as I, as I grew up,
um, with both sides of myfamily, with Susie and David,
(50:49):
and seeing those things andwatching them compete and being
at Special Olympic events wheremy Uncle Dave, or, when I was in
college, we would have to.
As a football team at theUniversity of Dayton, we would
go to Special Olympic events atWellcome Stadium and we would
have to stand at the end of the100-meter dash to stop them as
they ran, because they wouldjust keep running.
(51:10):
And it was so cool becausethey'd run and they'd give you a
big hug at the end.
You know they didn't know anybetter and it was just, you know
, such a rewarding thing to be apart of.
So a lot of work for you, butvery rewarding.
Um, two final questions as weland this plane.
Um, is there, is there a Bibleverse?
Is there a quote?
Is there something when, whenthings are challenging in your
(51:33):
life, uh, and there'sdifficulties, is there something
that you lean on, that that yougo back on and you say, nope,
this, this is where I'm at, thisis what I stand for and this is
, you know, this is what gets methrough.
Speaker 4 (51:46):
Um, that's a good question.
I will tell you and we just hadthis conversation I'm in my
family.
Um, I think life is.
This is real life.
Right, it's not.
Every day is perfect.
There were days we wake up notfeeling like who we want to feel
like, or not accomplishing whatwe want to accomplish, or the
(52:06):
heartaches of just life loss.
You know, for me to have thatmoment of you know I didn't have
a typical family life which Ithink is unfair to say, because
I feel like we never know what'sgoing on in someone's home,
even in our beautifulcommunities.
You never know what people arereally dealing with, right and?
(52:27):
But no matter who we are, whatwe've lived or what we've gone
through, we are beloved, andthat is, you are beloved by the
creator of this world, beloved,and that, to me, has always been
something to fall back on.
If I'm not, if I don't feellike I'm enough, or I've been
(52:49):
told I'm not enough, or you'vebeen told you're not enough, you
are a beloved child of God.
That is enough for me.
That's enough.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
That's amazing.
If you could sit on a parkbench and have a conversation
with someone living or deceased,who would it be and why?
Speaker 4 (53:11):
Oh, it wouldn't be impressive to anybody but myself
I.
It would be my grandfather,which makes no sense to anybody
else.
But that hands down.
No questions asked.
It would be him because he was,until I met my husband, the
best man I ever knew.
He was kind and gentle and goodand hardworking and would tease
(53:34):
me just in the perfect way thatit made you feel more loved,
and I wanted to marry someonelike him.
And not only did I get to dothat, he milked the same cows my
grandpa did, and that's not whyI married him.
And not only did I get to dothat, he, he milked the same
cows my grandpa did so andthat's not why I married him.
But yeah, he was just, he wasjust a good person and um, who
(53:56):
grew up a farmer in Kentucky andended up ended up in Preble
County farming here.
But, um, yeah, that's that's itwould be, and that is not an
impressive answer.
I apologize.
No, no, in your story it isbecause he was that stability,
that you didn't have at home.
Speaker 3 (54:15):
Yeah, yeah, he, he just, he just gave you.
Speaker 4 (54:16):
um, there were not a lot of wonderful male influences
in my life and, uh, he was yourfather.
Yeah, he was, he was, he wasyeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
I did a little research, came across the Bible
verse.
I think that, uh, embodies youand your spirit, and it it's
Matthew 25, verse 40.
It says, truly, I tell you,whatever you did for one of
these, the least of thesebrothers and sisters of mine,
you did for me, and I think thatembodies you, that embodies
your spirit, that embodies yourentire life to this point of
(54:45):
what you've done.
Everything you've done has beennot perfect, right, you admit
that none of us are perfect buthas been to his glory, you know,
to serve him.
You answered that call, right,and and you minimize it a little
bit by, you know, I'm given akidney, you know, but that's a
big deal, you know that that isa big deal and, um, you're very
(55:08):
humble, you're very kind and, um, I can't thank you enough for
coming and it was an hour and 15minutes, hour and a half,
what'd it take you?
Speaker 4 (55:17):
It's an hour and 20, but I did it in an hour and 15.
Speaker 2 (55:21):
Sounds like a Mercer County driver.
Sounds like my father-in-law.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
the lead foot like my father-in-law, the lead foot.
Kim, you got anything to add.
I do have one last thing to add, because, with this podcast, a
lot of times Dan interviewspeople who have are going
through the fire and themgetting through it on the other
side.
But in your situation, youchose to go through that fire to
(55:48):
donate that kidney, which showsso much of your life.
You're just a servant too, butwhat are some of the
consequences that you havebecause you gave that kidney?
Are there side effects that youhave to deal with the rest of
your life because this is a firethat you chose to go through?
Speaker 4 (56:08):
Sure, I have to be like there's no more Advil.
There's no.
All medications have to beclosely watched.
I have to drink two gallons ofwater a day.
To me they're minimal as awoman.
There is a new scar?
That is not.
It's not in the place.
I would love it to be.
(56:28):
But beyond that, um, my health.
I went to the gym this morning.
I ran two miles this morning.
I really, at this point we'rethree months in now um, there's
no difference that I can tell no, none.
But then they're not going to.
And I want to tell anybodywho's even considering this um,
they're not going to.
And I want to tell anybodywho's even considering this
(56:49):
they're not going to let you doit if they think there's going
to be any negative health effectfor you.
Beyond those simple things,because of course, they want
their numbers to look good,right, because then people will
continue to do it.
Speaker 2 (57:03):
They're not going to allow you If you are not a good
candidate they're going to tellyou and you're not going to do
it, so just I want to encouragethat too.
Speaking of that, if someonehears this story or has had it
on their heart to to potentiallydonate a kidney, how, how do
people make that connection?
Is it talking to their doctor?
Is it talking to someonespecifically?
What's?
(57:23):
What's the way to make thatconnection?
Speaker 4 (57:24):
So for me, I just Googled um Ohio state kidney
transplant center and the allthe links in the phone numbers
are all right there and they doan amazing.
They're very communicative.
They don't have to wait sixmonths for them to reply to you.
Um, they do a nice job ofthey're going to send you an
email right away and say watchthis and then get back to us.
Um, you watch it and if youdon't, if it's not something
(57:45):
that you want to do, they do notcontact you again.
They wait for you to call back.
So there's no pressure.
Speaker 2 (57:50):
Would you do it again ?
Speaker 4 (57:51):
A hundred times, a hundred times over.
There is nothing that has postsurgery that has been anything
to me.
But a blessing I to be chosenfor this.
I just when people say thingslike this.
That's why it throws me off alittle bit, because what a
blessing to be chosen to get tosave someone's life.
I just what a blessing and I'mexcited.
(58:13):
On April 6th, ohio State has awhere they bring all of their
transplant individuals in.
So that's coming up in a coupleweeks and my recipient, his
wife, texted me and said we'regoing to be there, are you guys
going to come and we're going togo to dinner afterwards and
just to get to watch their livesflourish as this young couple,
(58:34):
I'm so grateful to be given thatopportunity.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Well, and I think it says so much about you, how
humble you are, for you to saythat you were chosen.
It's not about you making thatdecision and doing it.
It's the sheer fact that Godasked you to do it and you did
it so beautiful.
Speaker 2 (58:54):
It's an amazing story .
You're an amazing woman.
I thank you again for comingdown and having this
conversation with us andhopefully maybe we formed a
friendship here that when we'reback up in the area maybe we can
get together for lunch or meetyour husband.
Speaker 4 (59:11):
I love that and I would show you all of the cool
Special Olympics things.
Speaker 2 (59:14):
We've got some great.
Speaker 4 (59:15):
St Henry Special Olympic athletes that you may
probably know their families socool.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Well, good, well, everybody.
If you're not sharing this show, I don't know what you're
listening to.
This one's powerful.
If you're not sharing this show, I don't know what you're, what
you're listening to.
This one's powerful.
Um, you know the impact thatSam has had on so many people's
lives beyond the kidneys uh,with the special Olympics and,
and, and those families who, whohave heard this story, and I
think that's part of part ofthat Sam is, you know, the, the,
(59:42):
the notoriety and and just likecoming here and being on the
podcast and being on the armyand normal folk.
I think that's that's part ofhis process.
For you, yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:50):
I had to come to terms with that.
Speaker 2 (59:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (59:52):
Cause I had to pray about that.
When I was first asked, like Idon't know, this, I'm not
looking for and my husband, Italked about it and I said, you
know, I, it really was on myheart Like, but this is being
asked of you too.
This is not about you and itnever has been about you from
the beginning.
This is his plan.
So, and you know, and I thinkit's anything in life that
you're doing you never knowwho's going to hear something
that heard, something that, um,brings him glory.
(01:00:14):
And if that does, then hey,it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Well, thanks again everybody,go out and be tempered.
Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
Hi, this is my dad, dan.
He owns Catron's Glass.
Thanks, allie.
Things like doors and windowsgo into making a house, but when
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