Deb Gustafson’s life changed at church one morning when a friend named Bonnie sidled up to her and whispered, “I want to be tested.”
Disease had destroyed Deb’s kidneys, and she’d been living without hers for more than three years. Only dialysis kept her alive, and that took everything out of her.
“The next step was hospice,” she said. “I had given up.”
Several family and friends hoped to be living donors. None were compatible.
Bonnie went through with the testing, and it revealed incredible results. She was a match.
Bonnie donated a kidney to Deb in 2018.
“Every time I see Bonnie, I think, ‘I have her kidney,’” Deb said. “It’s amazing. She’s a hero. She saved my life.”
Now, Deb is giving gifts to others as a volunteer with Gift of Life.
She regularly shares her transplant story with Flint and Saginaw-area high school students as part of the All of Us education program. She also helps organize events where volunteers craft warm, fuzzy comfort blankets to help ease the grief of donor families.
“It makes me feel good,” Deb said. “Comfort is hard to come by, and the more we can educate about organ donation, the better.”
She volunteered her place of worship, Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Flint, as a site for comfort blanket events, and dozens have been crafted there in recent years.
“Each blanket represents a treasured person,” Deb said. “As people tie the knots, maybe they’re saying a prayer or whispering, ‘I love you.’ Everybody there has the same goal — to help in the world in some small way, to offer comfort. It’s all from the heart.”
Deb’s own heart is huge, said Shalonda Griffin, community relations coordinator for Gift of Life.
She said Deb has helped her set up for educational events in the pouring rain and has hopped in the car with her to drive across the state for presentations, so she doesn’t need to travel alone.
Shalonda loves watching Deb’s gentle delivery as she tells students and nervous transplant patients how her life nearly ended before Bonnie came along.
“Students’ eyes get really wide, and they have so many questions for her,” Shalonda said. “Then they crowd around her afterwards and tell her how happy they are that things worked out for her.
“She is an amazing person, a gem,” Shalonda said. “I love Deb not just for what she does but for who she is. She knitted me a scarf, for goodness’ sake.”
