Giving Life

Organ Donation

We generally don’t like to think about death. Because of the coronavirus, we’re now thinking about it every day, and we’re worried because so much about the disease remains unknown.

When someone we love dies, the waves of emotion, finality, loss, and shock overwhelm our system and we don’t know what we’re supposed to do next. When doctors ask if we want to donate their organs, we may not understand the gravity of what they’re asking.

After the Funeral, There's the Quiet

            Today I’m thinking about Emily Rapp Black’s experience after her two-year-old infant son Ronan died, as well as about people I’ve loved who died in April — my wife Evelyn, John’s wife Anne, and Judy’s husband John. I hold them in my heart, along with those of you who also lost loved ones this month. Each year, this month of death makes us moody, sometimes snarly, especially when we think about what could have, should have, been.

Donating Life In the Midst of Grief

When someone we love dies, time is of the essence for donating organs. Do you know what you want to do?

My essay at The Huffington Post on donating my wife's organs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-liebenow/i-miss-my-wife-but-i-am-comforted-knowing-her-organs-saved-4-lives_b_9659720.html

Giving Life: Organ Donation

A year after my wife died and I donated her organs, I gathered with other donor families from around the Bay Area to give thanks and celebrate the gift of life.

You can read my short essay “Out of Death, Something” at

http://themanifeststation.net/2015/11/22/out-of-death-something/

Between Death and Goodbye

I am honored to have a short essay published by Modern Loss, an online journal devoted to sharing our stories of grief and building a community of support.

It is about sitting with my wife between her organ and tissue donations and saying goodbye. You can read it online at: http://modernloss.com/between-death-and-goodbye/

Organ Donation

Journal Entry 2

The next evening family and friends return to the hospital from our homes around the Bay Area to say a final goodbye to Evelyn. Shortly after 9 p.m. the organ surgery is over. Ev is the only patient in the recovery room. One by one, family and close friends go over, say their words, and leave. It’s my turn.

* If you would like to read the rest of this post, let me know and I’ll send it to you. *

Compassion and Organ Donation: Nicole Hixson

I don’t know how people like Nicole do it.  




They show up when people’s lives are falling apart and emotions are thick. People are screaming and crying, pounding on the walls, and people like Nicole are able to calm the panic and begin the healing process. Nicole is an organ transplant coordinator who speaks to the family minutes after death because time is of the essence.




* If you would like to read the rest of this post, let me know and I’ll send it to you. *