Nark “K.D.” Kumaravelan, the Morgantown restaurateur who underwent a landmark heart and kidney transplant last month at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, didn’t have it quite right, the people who know him say.
They’ve even been paying up because of it.
More on that.
First, though, Kumaravelan’s comments.
In a statement after the dual procedure — the first-ever at the hospital in Morgantown — he was gracious and abundant in praise of the surgical team that performed the nearly 10-hour procedure.
And he was even more so when he spoke of the organ donor, whom he did not know.
For the husband, father and businessman bent low by coronary disease at just 48 years of age, that person who marked the donor box on his driver’s license was his ultimate benefactor, he said.
An anonymous soul, he said, who truly was at the heart of the matter.
“I know my life is being extended through the generosity and kindness of that person,” the recipient said from his hospital bed.
“I’ll honor that gift each and every day through my own acts of kindness.”
The latter part of that statement was what had his friends gently smiling and shaking their heads.
That’s because K.D. is already quite known for his kindness and generosity of spirit, they said.
As customers, they said, they’re the recipients of his overtures.
Morgantown is a college town and college towns, automatically, at least lend themselves to a measure of diversity.
All those ideas and notions, being launched in all those classrooms.
When Kumaravelan and his wife Sara launched their TK’s restaurant downtown, it was a very specific epicurean oasis for many.
Vegetarian, you know.
Vegan, even.
This, in a region where sausage gravy can be hailed as the elixir of Almost Heaven.
This, in a region where it’s sometimes just not a meal — unless it arrives batter-fried, in a cardboard carton with grease tattoos.
When the couple opened their restaurant, Maura McLaughlin thanked her lucky stars.
The WVU professor of physics and astronomy has been a vegan for 30 years, half of which have been spent professionally in Morgantown, where, menu-wise, as said, one can’t always get there from here.
It didn’t take long for TK’s to become her favorite place.
She likes the menu, but she loves the owners.
“They are just the kindest, most generous people,” she said. “They’re genuine.”
Go in for your order, the professor said, and you’ll have to give updates on your kids and your dog, and everything else that might be going on, first.
That’s because when they ask, “How have you been?” they aren’t making casual conversation, she said.
McLaughlin is a mom to three sons.
Her progeny have been known to call on the restaurant — without money in their pockets.
“They’ll get a smoothie and I’ll have to pay K.D. later,” she said. “He’ll just smile and say, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”
Being critically ill is nothing to smile about, McLaughlin said, especially during these days.
The husband and wife are business partners besides marital ones, she said, with one of those partners looking at a lengthy recovery.
They’ve had to shutter the business while K.D. works to regain his strength. That means medical costs, with no money coming in.
“This would have been serious enough without the pandemic,” the professor said.
So she launched a GoFundMe account in hopes of helping the couple.
The easiest way to access the link is by going to Google and typing “go fund me tk’s morgantown” in the search field.
The professor who knows of such things said Thursday she’s heartened by the astronomical success.
Goals have been set, made and set again, she said.
“People have been so generous. And K.D. is slowly improving, which is wonderful.”
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