I traveled far and near, treking across all the continents, even going so far as stopping by Arecibo to listen into space; all in my quest to bring you the world's most ungrateful and low-class person. Get ready to celebrate with me because I've found her. It's Mary Travers, who after receiving a required bone marrow transplant for leukemia, insulted the person whose generosity made her survival possible:
"I had to have a bone marrow transplant. It's been a terrible year," she told me. "I just learned the donor's name is also Mary. She has two daughters. I have two daughters. See, just in case something goes wrong, you must wait a year before you can communicate with them.
...Mary laughed and added: "The problem was, I'm a lifelong Democrat. I was terrified that if she's a Republican, I could go into the voting booth and, like Dr. Strangelove, my whole brain could change around. When we finally spoke I asked her about this. There was a pause then she said, 'But I am a Republican.' So I said, 'Well, hell, I guess it's about time the Republicans did something nice for me.' "
I bet the donor got a good chuckle out of that, and as everyone knows, having a good laugh from a shot taken at you is much better than receiving a thank you from a person grateful for your life-saving kindness. It made the surgical procedure where, under anesthesia, the doctors used special, hollow needles to withdraw the liquid marrow from the back of her pelvic bones all worthwhile.
Her pockets aren't the only thing full of sand.
Posted by: mike at June 20, 2006 07:57 PMOk, now to try this again, but this time I'll leave out the great moral essay and leave the important part. A story about "The Jeffersons".
This reminds me of an episode where George Jefferson (whom my cousin was convinced looked exactly like my dad) had to donate blood to save a white supremacist. When the man woke up and found out whose blood had saved his life, he told his son that it would have been better to have died.
This has been your Moment Of Early Childhood Very Special Episode Sitcom Memories Related In The Most Passive Tense for the day.
Posted by: marc at June 20, 2006 10:56 PMI thought along similar lines when I read it, minus the Jeffersons. She has the same bigoted mentality as those who worried about the race of the owner of the donated blood they received.
Posted by: Donnah at June 20, 2006 11:14 PMHere's what I tried to leave all day: Spot on! my first thought when reading the news article the other day was how hard is it to say "thank you, you diametrically opposed veiwpoint holding person who provided the means to extend my life."?
1) she's an "artist", and therefore stuck up her own ass 99% of the time
2) down south we have a word for that kind of woman. it rhymes with runt.
I tried to leave a comment, but just referred people here instead.
Posted by: Norma at June 21, 2006 10:49 AMNorma, it's not an urban legend. It's a Cindy Adams column in the New York Post from June 19th. It's now in the paid archive.
http://pqarchiver.nypost.com/nypost/access/1062600911.html?dids=1062600911:1062600911&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jun+19%2C+2006&author=Cindy+Adams&pub=New+York+Post&edition=&startpage=014&desc=PETER%2C+PAUL+%26+THE+NEW+MARY
Norma referred me here. I have a special response for Ms. Travers. You can read it at Norma's blog ready for the long URL.....
http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2006/06/2603-i-hope-this-is-urban-legend-i.html#comments
That is absolutely amazing. Just jaw-dropping.
Posted by: Assistant Village Idiot at July 1, 2006 02:08 PMWhat a miserable, ungrateful bitch. Donating marrow is not like donating blood. You don't just run over on your lunch hour, donate and then have juice and fig-newtons.
Donating marrow is a serious commitment for both the donor and family.
I donated marrow in Jan of 03 or 04 to a 50 year old women I never met. We received some nice cards from her but I chose not to meet her. Sadly the marrow didn't take but I was told by the red cross representative that my donation allowed her to live long enough to see her grandchild born!
I felt like it was my duty to sign up in the donor registry and was told that being someones match was like winning the lottery. I won. When I was contacted that I was a possible match there was never a question that I would go forward with the donation. This caused some serious issues between me and my wife. She did lots of research on the different procedures that help us decide the safest way to donate but she was never totally OK with what I was doing.
The process is very time consuming:
I think I had 8 to 10 different appointments, over three months, for various blood tests, informational meetings, a full physical and a then a mini physical the day before my surgery. I say surgery because collecting marrow is a full blown surgical procedure.
I gave at least 10 samples of blood; big needle - multiple vials each time. I took two full days off work but all the appointments probably totaled a full work week.
I was in the hospital for the entire day of my surgery. Because marrow donation is so painful they put you way down . When I came back up I felt like I was hit by a truck. It took me about a week before I felt normal.
I would do it again.
