Grandmother's prayers answered after placing ad for kidney donor

Grandmother's prayers answered after placing ad for kidney donor

May 8, 2007 09:16 AM
MEMPHIS, TN - Yolanda Jones is in and out of the hospital, has been on dialysis three days a week for four years, and now doctors say she needs a new kidney. This week, she felt at the end of her rope. But things are starting to look up.

"You all just don't know. We've been going through it for a long time," says Jones' grandmother Dorothy Poindexter. "But the Lord's gonna lift up this burden."

Jones has been to the hospital too many times to count, but this most recent trip last Tuesday sent her family crying for the first time. The family can't bear to see this mother of five burdened by an illness that has her life on the line.

"They cried when they hit the door," says Jones. "It gets so hard. Sometimes I get so sick I can't really do what I used to do with my kids."

"The children need their mother, and she needs her children,"says her grandmother.

Jones' grandmother is determined to do something for Yolanda. She won't stop until her granddaughter's suffering is over. After the last trip to the hospital, she marched to the Commercial Appeal and opened a classified ad, asking total strangers' for help.

"If something goes wrong I'll feel better knowing I did what I can do," says Grandma Poindexter. "I hope and pray somebody going to call."

With our cameras rolling Monday, her prayers were answered.

"Lord Jesus! Thank you Jesus!" excalimed Poindexter as she listened to a voicemail offering a kidney. Someone answered the ad, offering to donate his own kidney. "I just thank the Lord Jesus somebody's thinking about my grandchild."

Poindexter could hardly wait to spread the good news. And her eldest grandchild's reaction was equally unbelievable. A moment of sheer joy, shared by to women with a bond only a grandmother and granddaughter can share.

"What? What! Thank you Lord!"

"I told you God's gonna answer didn't I," replied Poindexter.

Now, this Frayser mom has hope for brighter days and a life with her kids.

"And I intend to be here for them," says Jones, "I'm going to be here. I'm going to be here."

But this isn't the end. Doctors still need to be sure the organ's a match. If that doesn't work, Jones' sister could be the match she's looking for. At least now, she has options she never had before.