Leaving a Legacy of Life
through Organ Donation

As we age we begin to think about leaving a legacy. Few of us have enough money to start a foundation, or build a hospital. Most people won’t write a book, paint a masterpiece or discover a miracle cure for a disease. However, there is something we all have that we can leave to others that will make the world a better place.

I found this letter in Dear Abby’s column about organ donation, and I wanted to share it with you because it made me think of how each of us can help create new life when our own lives come to an end.

TO REMEMBER ME
by Robert Test

“At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens do not tempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don’t call this my ‘deathbed.’ Call it my ‘bed of life,’ and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to a man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her windows.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the asks to the winds to help the flowers grow.

If you must buy something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all my prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my soul to God. If by chance you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.”

If you’d like to know how you could leave a legacy of life for others by donating your organs, visit Organdonor.gov