“I lay my head upon his chest, and I was with my boy again. I spent so much time in darkness, I didn’t think the night would end. But somehow Grace has found me…and I had to let him in.” ~From “Just Like That,” Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt’s surprise Grammy win for 2023 Song of the Year was no surprise to me. In “Just Like That” she tells the story of a woman who is unexpectedly visited by the man who got her late son’s heart. It’s a song that can reduce anyone to tears.
I have been that woman—that Donor Mom, as we’re known in the transplantation world. Bonnie was right about the most important aspect of these mysterious and indelible relationships we build with organ and tissue donors.
Our bullshit disappears magically because both recipients and donors are pushed to their limits. For all of us, everything we previously worried about suddenly seems petty, unimportant, beside the point—except for one sterling truth.
Someone out there, in the vast sea of humanity, is carrying your precious child’s organs or tissues around. A little bit of your beloved child is still out there.
They’re not entirely gone. They’re still there, even in the chaos, pain, and crushing
