Long Journey ends with a new heart

Chicago Tribune | Steven Ross

CHICAGO — It was 4:30 a.m. on a Monday when I got the call to come to Northwestern Memorial Hospital — a heart had become available. I remember the exact time because I was already wide awake working on a story that was due later that day.

I could barely make out the words the nurse was telling me over the phone. I felt as though I was outside of myself watching the whole scene unfold.

My wife, Jill, just happened to wake up and make her nightly trip to the bathroom when she saw me on the phone with a stunned look on my face.

“What is it?” she said.

“That was the hospital,” I responded. “It's time.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean they have it?”

“They got it,” I said.

Up until that time it was easier to think of the heart as an object or a thing that I was receiving.
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