Mabel

Yesterday I got word that one of our friends from the Ronald McDonald House passed on Friday at Duke Hospital where nearly a year and a half ago she received a double lung transplant. The news hit me pretty hard, harder than the losses of a couple other small children whose families we got to know while staying at the Ronald McDonald House. The difference, I think, is that I actually knew Mabel. I frequently ran into her in the kitchen where she would be helping out as her mother cooked for anyone who was hungry. Mabel would often get down off her stool to get down to Autumn’s level to talk to her. Autumn liked her.

Mabel and her family live in South Carolina but they had spent nine months in Durham around the time of her transplant. So, during our tenure in Durham her family sort of served as ambassadors for the Ronald McDonald House whenever they were there. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t help you out with at the House and they knew almost everyone who had been there for a good deal of time.

Another reason that Mabel’s passing hit me hard was because she was a transplant recipient and I don’t know many other transplant recipients besides my son. Although Mabel had a double lung transplant, and not the more frequently performed heart transplant, I connected her with Noah. Noah is doing fine now, but so was Mabel when I last saw her. Her passing just reminded me that transplant recipients are at a higher risk of mortality. That scares me.

Fortunately, this fear doesn’t overpower my optimism that Noah will grow big and strong and go on to do great things in whatever he chooses to do. I must note that Mabel has done great things as well. To quote her father, "She, in her short 18 years touched many people with her courage, her warrior spirit, and with blue eyes and a smile that melted the hardest of hearts."

May Mabel’s courage and spirit live on in those who knew her. And to those who never knew her, you can look forward to meeting her in heaven. That’s her home now.