Rose, ribbon ceremony honors organ donors

More than 350 people representing about 80 organ donor families attended the ribbons and roses memorial ceremony Sunday.

The turnout reassured Kaed Horrell, 28, of Cape Girardeau that his family is not as rare in Southeast Missouri as he thought. Horrell said he had expected only a dozen families.

He attended Mid-America Transplant Services' ceremony at the Capaha rose garden in honor of his father, Norman Horrell, 56, who died in February from a car accident. His father's heart, liver, kidneys and eyes were donated, as was other tissue.

"He was the guy I most respected in the world," Horrell said. "I try to model myself after him."

He remembered his father saying that his organs would be better off with someone who needed them rather than be with him in heaven. Shortly after his father's death, Horrell and his wife signed up to become organ donors.

Speaker Judy Luye related her experiences from the death of her 17-year-old son, Rickey, in July 1996.

"I think that experiencing this, I too can relate to the patient and to the family who are patiently waiting for that gift," Luye said.

Just a day before his 17th birthday, her son was in a car accident that resulted in a head injury. Swelling of the brain kept him in a coma for three days before he died. During that time, Luye discussed with her family her son's desire to be an organ donor. As her family struggled with and warmed up to the idea, her daughter said that his eyes were the only organ that he should keep. In the end, his vital organs were donated to several people.

Not long before his accident Rickey had told his father that the idea of organ transplants was "amazing," she said, and the conversation led him to decide to donate his organs.

"It was not my gift," Luye said. "It was his."While Luye's son decided on his own to donate, Darline Taylor, 44, of Rector, Ark., made the decision with her husband.

She and two family friends attended the memorial in honor of Steven Taylor, who died in August while in a coma.

"I had to unplug him," she said, but knowing what would come was a comfort. Several vital organs and tissues were donated.

Her husband had a reputation for helping strangers, which was exactly what he was doing when a vehicle hit the rear of a trailer that he was standing on while moving a motorcycle, Taylor said.

"He died doing what he loved to do -- helping someone else," she said, and the memorial helped remind her that he is still helping strangers.

Members of each donor family received long-stemmed roses and a green ribbon signifying the gift of life. Sunday's memorial was the first in Cape Girardeau, with donor families coming from Southern Illinois, parts of Arkansas and most of Missouri. Another memorial ceremony is planned, although the date is not set, said Breita Church, donation specialist for Mid-America Transplant Services.

"This is a very special gift that families have given and we want to remember and honor them always and let them know that we still care," she said. Every family should have a conversation about organ donation, Church said.

"We should only be so lucky to have someone to give us a chance at a second chance at life," Taylor said, "and that is what my husband and other donors do."

jmetelski@semissourian.com

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