Source: Bradford Era,Jeramie Ford’s family will spend the six-year anniversary of Ford’s death meeting one of the people that Jeramie saved.
Ford, 28, died unexpectedly of a heart attack in June of 2004. He was an organ donor.
One day in May the close-knit family will be going to the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) in Pittsburgh to meet the man who received Jeramie’s liver.
In an interview Wednesday afternoon with Ford’s mother, sister and brother, Jan, Precious and Josey Hendryx, the three described Ford’s life, death and legacy.
“He was a good guy,” Jan Hendryx said. “He was good to me.”
Photographs and stories of Jeramie revealed him to be a caring man with a sharp sense of humor and a mechanical inclination.
“Jeramie could take something and put it back together like nothing,” said Precious Hendryx.
He enjoyed hunting, fishing, woodworking and wrestling. He was the best father anyone could ask for, too, explained Jan Hendryx.
Ford’s children, 13-year-old Miracle, and 11-year-old Anthony, currently live with their mother in Ohio. Jan Hendryx said that they know about the scheduled meeting with Kevin, the recipient of Ford’s liver, who is from West Virginia. However, she was not sure if they would be able to go.
It was Precious Hendryx who got the ball rolling by writing letters recently to CORE to see if any of the organ recipients would be interested in meeting the family.
The family has known very little about the organ recipients. They know that Ford’s left kidney went to a man in his 60s who had been on dialysis, a woman received his right kidney, and a child received his eyes. Kevin and Ford were both 28 at the time of Ford’s death.
It is Kevin that the family will be meeting in May, but Jan Hendryx hopes to meet more of the recipients, too.
Once the family is in Pittsburgh, they will have to fill out paperwork at the CORE building before they will be able to see Kevin. They plan on meeting Kevin at CORE, taking him out to dinner and staying overnight in Pittsburgh.
Jan Hendryx was excited when she received the call that she would be meeting Kevin. She hopes that meeting the people who were saved because of Ford’s death will make the decision to donate Jeramie’s organs worthwhile.
“That’s as close as I’m going to get to Jeramie,” explained Jan Hendryx about meeting the organ recipients.
She was pleased to have the opportunity to talk with The Era about her experience because “people will need to know how wonderful it is to safe a life.”
As priceless as the gift is that Ford has given Kevin and the other organ recipients, the donation process was very difficult for his family. The process involves a great deal of paperwork, and the grieving family must do it immediately because of the time constraints of organ donation. The family said that the CORE representatives that worked with them were very good.
The most difficult thing for the family, though, was waiting for Ford to die. In order to be able to use Jeramie’s organs, he had to be put on life support until he was brain dead. His family stood beside his bed for three days watching him die.
“He would have wanted it. It’s the right thing to do,” Precious Hendryx said.
When asked what they will say to Kevin when they met him, Precious Hendryx joked that her mom would ask, “Want a new mom? Then she’ll bring him home.”
Josey Hendryx said that he would ask Kevin how he changed because of the organ transplant. He also wanted to know what Kevin’s family is like and why he needed a liver.
“It’ll be happy. It’ll be sad,” said Jan Hendryx, and there will probably be laughing and crying when she meets Kevin.
The words “Little Buddy,” a nickname given to him from his father and uncle, are etched in his gravestone next to an etching of his handsome face. The back of Ford’s gravestone says, “Jeramie’s gone fishing,” as requested by his older brother, Derek Emley. Emley was supposed to go fishing with Ford the day he died, but he had canceled because he had to work. He has always regretted it.
Josey Hendryx found another way to commemorate Ford, as well as his cousin, Alissa Cameron. He got a tattoo Tuesday of a guitar with wings. Jeramie and Alissa’s names were written on the guitar.
Jeramie was cousins with Alissa Cameron, the college student who died a couple of years ago after being struck by a car in the Northwest Savings Bank parking lot. Cameron’s organs were also donated to needy individuals.
Her life changed the day that Ford died. She tries to do as much for her other three children as she can now.
After Jeramie’s death, Jan Hendryx encouraged Josey to join Kenpo karate classes. He still takes classes and he and instructor Mike Miller are good friends.
“I’ll look at him (Kevin) and know, Jeramie made him alive,” said Jan Hendryx. When she thinks of her son, she tries to remember the lives that he saved and the happy memories he left her.
“You never heal,” said Jan Hendryx. “Not a day goes by when he’s not on my mind.”
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