Take your driver’s license out of your wallet and look at it. Does it have a little heart symbol on it? If so, you are special. You have signed up to become an organ or tissue donor. Believe it or not, one organ and tissue donor can save or improve the lives of more than 50 individuals. The poem below convinced Doug and me this choice was right for us.
To Remember Me
Robert Noel Test (1926-1994)
To Remember Me
At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.
When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my "deathbed." Call it my "bed of life," and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
Give my sight to a man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her windows.
Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all my prejudice against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God. If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.
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To become an organ donor, you don’t even need to go into the CT Dept. of Motor Vehicles. If you are a CT license or ID card holder, go to the CT DMV website at http://tinyurl.com/yzb8tn8 or call 800.842.8222 to have a form mailed to you. After you fill it out and send it in, the DMV will send you a “heart” sticker to affix to your license. To see Frequently Asked Questions about organ and tissue donation, visit http://tinyurl.com/ykz7398 or http://organdonor.gov.
Each day, 19 people die waiting for transplants that cannot take place because of a shortage of donated organs. This holiday, think about giving a special gift to someone you do not even know. You could change lives for the better.
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