Tammy Bishoff celebrates that letter.
Because every time she re-reads it, she knows that Brayden, in essence, is still alive.
Every time she re-reads it, she knows its author is still experiencing earthly moments — occasionally vexing, but mostly good — and all from the generosity displayed by her 15-year-old son when he checked that box that afternoon.
The letter was from a person who benefited from an organ transplant after her son’s death. Brayden was the donor.
“Brayden was pretty matter of fact about it,” the Bruceton Mills woman remembers.
“He thought if he could do something that might help someone, he would.”
Brayden was working through the paperwork for his learner’s permit when he got to the aforementioned box asking if he wanted to be an organ donor.
“Brayden checked the box,” his mom said, “and that’s all there was to it.”
Then, tragically unthinkable happened.
Brayden was a passenger in car that skidded off a Preston County roadway in February 2019.
He suffered grave injuries. A week after that crash, on the evening of Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day — he slipped away.
But his organs were harvested, so that others might live. Bishoff doesn’t know all the particulars.
Nor does she know, with the exception of the one letter, how many lives her son may have saved through his generosity, or the quality of life for others chronically in need of a transplant.
She just knows he checked the box — and she wants you to do the same.
This year’s West Virginia Donor Day is Thursday. It’s a chance to learn about the life-affirming importance of doing what Brayden decreed.
Visit https://donatelifewv.org/wvdonorday/ to find out how you can register.
There, you’ll learn that just one donor can save eight lives — the reason for the 8-1 date — while helping in the healing of 75 others.
Greg Sabak knows all about that.
On July 24, 2016, with literal weeks to live, he underwent a successful heart transplant.
“I was pretty much at the end,” said the Westover man, who now volunteers to get out the word with the Pittsburgh and Morgantown-area offices of the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.
“I celebrate my donor every day,” he said. For him, the ultimate gift is time. Time to spend with his son, Spencer. The two play golf and go bowling and participate in 5K runs.
Sometimes, they don’t do anything.
Bishoff, meanwhile, wants you to have time in mind, if you’re still considering whether to check that box.
For a mom, some things can’t and won’t die, she said.
Brayden’s ease with people.
The fact that he could make people laugh — either by a droll observation or flat-out slapstick.
People strike up conversations in the grocery checkout aisle sometimes, she said, now that she’s gotten more visible in her advocacy role.
Either they’re a transplant recipient or someone they love is.
“They tell their story,” she said. “Just hearing their thankfulness makes the difference.”
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