“Why did I give? Momma needed a kidney. She gave me two at birth, so I thought I’d give her one back and let her kick around a little bit longer.
“They hesitated to take mine because I have high blood pressure, but I’ve had high blood pressure all of my adult life. I had just reached the magical age of 50, and I had to wear a blood pressure cuff for 24 hours to prove that I was well enough to give. They said that’s the magical age for people with high blood pressure to give a kidney — if they are stable. We felt like it was God’s timing and everything worked out just perfect.
“Getting here was quite the harrowing ordeal. If it hadn’t been for my uncle, Chubby Havert, we might not have made it here for that chain to keep going. We came during the snowstorm in January. We got stuck on the interstate about 12 miles down the road. We sat on the interstate for three hours before we had some truckers move people out of the way and let us try to get through to get to the hospital.
“We happened to get to a hotel, and it was packed with people. When we walked in, a man had just called to cancel his reservation because he could not make it in the storm. We had my daughter and her young children with us, and because we had young children, they called us up to the counter and said they just had a room come available, and they were going to give it to us. It was another miracle for us. We were able to find a hotel and get a room.
“We spent the night, and the next morning, my uncle got us here to UAB, and the transplants were able to go on.
“I’m so pleased everything has gone as well as it has for my momma and for everyone in this chain. It’s been a tremendous blessing for all of us.”
Paula Jones - 10
"We came during the snow storm. We got stuck on the interstate about 12 miles down the road. We sat on the interstate for three hours before we had some truckers move people out of the way and let us try to get through to get to the hospital."