Joe Berardoni Sr. and Joe Jr. are joined by some furry friends at Pun’s, their Bryn Mawr toy store. CHARLES FOX / Staff Photographer
Many a son would give his right arm to have a relationship with his dad like 33-year-old Joe Berardoni Jr. has with his.
After his wife died and he was left a single father, the elder Berardoni would skip out of work to catch his son's soccer and basketball games. They forged such a special bond that "young Joe" — who shares a quirky sense of humor with his father, if not his diminutive stature — didn't hesitate when his dad asked him more than a decade ago to work side by side, day after day, at Pun's Toys, his whimsical shop on Lancaster Avenue in Bryn Mawr.
"We're equals, friends," the son says now.
It turns out that 60-year-old Joe Berardoni Sr. doesn't need a new right arm, but the lifelong diabetes sufferer does desperately need a new kidney to stay alive. Berardoni's two sons, Joe and John, did not have to think very long or hard before volunteering one of theirs. But with a certain inevitability, Joe Jr. says, "I always knew I was his best shot."
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/20120617_Son_offers_a_kidney_for_Father_s_Day.html
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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