When I got the call that Saturday morning, it was a nightmare come true. "Your daughter has been in a serious car accident. Come quickly."
Ashley Blythe
Cathi Johnson
Unfortunately, I was in Memphis and my oldest daughter, Ashley Blythe, was in Baltimore. So "quickly" meant booking a flight for me, my mom, and my younger daughter, Erin, racing to the airport, grabbing a wad of cash from my dad, changing flights in Atlanta (made blessedly easy by sympathetic and helpful Delta Airlines personnel), and catching a cab to the trauma center. When I arrived, the sight I beheld was worse than I imagined.
It was 2001, just two months after 9/11. My daughter and a group of friends were headed to the Maryland shore for a weekend of fun when they decided to take a detour. A brother was being shipped overseas and they wanted to spend some time with him. It became late, yet they decided to head to their destination right away rather than wait until morning. Ashley got into the backseat and said she was going to sleep. Unfortunately, they all fell asleep, including the driver.
Ashley was ejected from the car when it flipped into a ditch. She was airlifted to the trauma center with severe head injuries. When I got there, I was told the daughter I knew was already gone -- they weren't sure if she would make it. In spite of heroic efforts, Ashley was declared brain dead on Nov. 11, 2001.
Ashley was an athlete, a strong 17-year old. Her father and I made the decision to donate her organs, something I later learned she and her friends had talked about just a few weeks prior to the accident. She was a Christian and understood what would happen with her body and soul at death.
I knew she would have made the same choice, saving or prolonging the lives of numerous individuals. I learned that a seriously ill girl received Ashley's strong heart and had what her mother termed "the best two years of her life" before she lost her battle. There are many others -- people no longer on dialysis, those who now see and burn victims whose skin is healed because of Ashley.
On Feb. 7, 2010, Ashley would have been 26 years old. Through the wonders of Facebook, I've learned about the lives of many of her high school friends. Erin is now 24 and a wonderful young woman. Life goes on for all of us.
As I remembered Ashley on her birthday, I thought of how she still lives in the bodies of others, and what their "re-birthday" must have meant to family and friends. The phone call they got that day in 2001 was a dream come true.
April is National Organ Donor Awareness Month. Be an organ donor. Plan ahead.
Cathi Johnson is vice president of advancement at Memphis Theological Seminary and lives in Collierville with her husband, Paul, and grand-puppy, Martini.
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