She Loved Her Neighbor

She is a former student.  From the time she walked on the high school campus the fall of her freshman year, she was the “go-to-girl,” a leader and tireless worker, including being class president her junior and senior years.   

One day at lunch, the principal and I were on the Quad; and she stopped to chat us up with her usual enthusiasm, cheerfulness and some paperwork requiring our attention or approval. As she sped away, the boss quipped that he could probably retire and let her run the school.  For four years this girl had her hand in – and left her mark on – one prom, homecoming, class dinner, fund-raiser, canned-food drive, winter formal and community service project after another.  She was also a straight-A student.

She was also an unsung hero.  This is a story that demonstrates her skill set, her work ethic, her leadership, her attention to detail, her ability to see the big picture, and especially the “content of her character.” 

In the fall of her senior year one of her classmates fell gravely ill with two pernicious forms of cancer, and by the middle of September he was at UCLA, where they strove to stem the hemorrhaging caused by a lack of platelets, which are the elements that allow your blood to coagulate.  Without them you cannot stop the bleeding.  He needed platelets badly.

A platelet drive is different from a blood drive.  When a bloodmobile shows up on campus, students and staff make appointments for the 20-minute procedure. To donate platelets; you had to drive to UCLA, submit to a screening process, and if approved, undergo a procedure of several hours. 

For our students to donate, they had to get parent permission, and we had to find adult drivers who would fill out the appropriate insurance and hold-harmless paperwork required by the school district.  It was an enormous undertaking.

Enter our former student.  To this day I am stunned that she was able to manage her school work and senior-class-president responsibilities AND find the time to recruit enough students and staff and others – AND find the drivers – to accomplish the collection of enough units of platelets to supply the young man’s almost daily need for transfusions.  She developed an Excel spread sheet to keep track, and two or three times per week she showed up in the Attendance Office with the necessary forms and the list of students who would be absent that day.

There was a great deal of attention in the community and in the media about this young man’s plight, his grittiness, his courage.  There were fund-raisers and contributions to assist the family, and the school received many phone calls from perfect strangers wanting to pitch in for a young man they had never met.  It was a wonderful testament to the goodness and generosity of the village.

Sadly, there was not a happy ending to the young man’s journey, because he passed in January, never having left the hospital.

Yet there was also a touching denouement to this sad story.  Among the phone calls we received was one from the director of the platelet treatment center.  He wanted to know about the young woman whose name kept being mentioned by the donors from our community.  He had never seen anything like the response from our town and school.  Over a four-month period, the young man used 149 units of platelets; the drive produced 151.  As a result, they did something that was theretofore unprecedented.  They waived all the normal transfusion fees, saving the family untold thousands of dollars.   

Later in the spring of her senior year, this seventeen-year-old girl was recognized in a ceremony by the American Cancer Society for her service to her school, the community, and the family of the young man.

When I asked her where she drew the strength to do the work, and especially how she handled the crushing disappointment of her classmate’s passing; she said it was her deep reservoir of faith in Christ, which was also the driving force for her to do the work, and to love her neighbor.      

She and I have graduated from student and advisor to cherished friends.  When she granted me permission to post this story, I was reminded of the passage in Philippians, Chapter 2, regarding humility.  She asked me to say that all the glory belongs to King Jesus, and not to her.