Tucson mother grateful for gift of lifeMay 14, 2007 07:58 AM
Ed Tribble
Mother's day and roses go hand in hand. This Mother's Day, Annette Jones' family is lucky she's here to prune the yellow rose bushes in her front yard.
"In 1990 I just went in for a routine check up and found my blood pressure was high," Jones says.
She had bad kidneys and underwent two different transplants.
But in 2004 bad news came back for a third time.
Doctors said finding a living donor was her best shot at recovery.
She might die waiting on a list.
"It was very difficult for me to come forward and say to other people: 'OK anyone want to give me a kidney? If you do here's the phone number.' and so I was really internalizing it a lot," Jones says.
Annette vented her frustrations over a dinner with friend Donna Davis.
"She loves life so much. And that's the one thing I so admire about her," Davis says.
That night changed everything for the two friends. After dinner Donna says a higher power reached out.
"I received a vision of Annette's face and her eyes. They were pleading," Davis says.
"Three months later she gave me one of her kidneys and here I am to tell you about it," Jones says.
In Annette's yard, she takes extra care of the roses.
They're a special hybrid created by an organ donor network.
Each of the three rose bushes represents one of the donors whose generosity lets her take care of them.
"There's not a day that goes by that I'm not grateful, and that I don't thank God for what I have in my life," Jones says.
Though there's a common misconception about checking the box on your driver's license application, it doesn't sign you up to be a donor like most people might think. Instead it just signs you up to have information sent to you.
http://www.kvoa.com/global/story.asp?s=6511214
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