“One day when my brother, Stevie Stephens, was in the hospital, he told me, ‘I felt so bad yesterday, I told them I wish they would just let me die.’ I said, ‘No way, buddy. If you wanted to die, you should have thought about that a few months ago before I decided to give you a kidney. You’re going to get going, and you’re going to feel better.’ Even though I am the little sister, I have always had to push him.
“When I found out he needed a kidney transplant, I didn’t even have to think about it. I have always been an organ donor on my driver’s license and just thought, if I was willing to help someone after I was gone, why not go ahead and do it and help him now.
“He is 11 years older than me and has always been so good to me. So, I wanted his quality of life to be better as quickly as possible. I didn’t want him on a waiting list. I didn’t want him to go on dialysis. He had not felt good for a long time; but he had college-age kids and needed to work, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to do that on dialysis. I didn’t want him to go down any further.
“They did the testing; but even though we were a match, they decided it was best that my kidney go to someone else in the UAB Kidney Chain. I’m 5-foot-1 and weigh about 120 pounds, and Stevie is a lot bigger than me, and they were concerned that the size difference might be too great. It really didn’t matter if he got my actual kidney or not. I looked at it like he was still getting a kidney because of me, and I was able to help two people, which was great.
“It’s a small world, I guess, because I live in the little town of Vernon, Alabama, and my recipient, Annie Stewart, lives about 20 miles away in Columbus, Mississippi. We go to church in Columbus, and her brother is the gardener for some of our close friends at church. It’s like we’re all tied together in something good.
“Stevie didn’t want to take my kidney. He wanted to go on the donor list, and I had to make him take it. I was just not going to take ‘no’ for an answer. I would have done anything to help him feel better and live longer.
“It’s so rewarding to know that two people have better quality of life now because of my donation. To know that my brother and Annie are doing so much better, there is no price you can put on that.”