An open letter to the family of my sisters organ donor,

Firstly, I am sorry for your loss. There is no comparison to the hurt and emptiness you may be feeling. While I am sure this letter may be difficult to read, I hope it can bring you peace and give you some closure.

Quite often, we hear the words ‘thank you’ in our daily lives. Even if I wrote one million ‘thank yous’ in this letter, it still would not be enough to express my eternal gratitude. How can I thank someone for giving my sister the life she never had but always wanted?

Thanks to you, my sister can finally go swimming with her friends. She can attend full-time school, eat a more relaxed diet and participate in daily life without a kidney holding her back.

The two years of waiting for a kidney were slow and full of both pain and hope. Hope that my sister would receive a kidney, and pain when she did not.

After two false alarms with active recipient list we got the call. I was in class at the time and the office called me down  for an unknown urgent reason. I will never forget those seconds when my mom told me the news. Never in my life had I ever felt so much happiness and excitement. And to be honest, I am not sure there is a feeling that could ever compare.

Later on that night is when I fully was able to comprehend what had happened. It was then when I realized that, in order for my sister receive this kidney, someone else had to lose a loved one. I can only hope that as I received numerous congratulatory messages and warm hugs, that you, the donor’s family, were surrounded with people helping you too.

The future from here is unknown. Maybe someday we will meet or maybe we will not. And as I end this letter, I offer you my thankfulness with all my heart and hope that peace finds you too.

From the deepest part of my heart, thank you.