Guest Stories
Meet Aly, Noland, and Wyvette Williams
Six years ago, Noland Williams learned he would need a liver transplant. Within a year he was listed, but Noland would continue to wait for a liver for another five years. “He had been on the list for so long,” his wife, Wyvette, recalls, “and he was getting sicker as the years went by.” Their…
Read MoreMeet Mike and Melissa Komula
“We just like it here, huh?” Mike Komula asks his wife Melissa as they sit side-by-side on the couch in Transplant House’s community space. They have been speaking for almost an hour about their many stays at Transplant House (73 nights, including a seven week stay, spread over nearly four-and-a-half years). Melissa, holding his hand…
Read MoreMeet Kathie and Brian Holmes
As an oncology nurse at a small community hospital, Kathie Holmes is all too aware of how a person’s life can change in an instant, with a single diagnosis. She’s seen it many times. As the wife of a man whose lungs were destroyed by COVID-19, she’s also aware of the uncertainty severe illness brings, of the financial hardships, and the ongoing struggle to be heard. She’s lived it.
Read MoreMeet Doug and Susan Smith
Transplant House was a home away from home. Everyone I’ve talked to, before arriving and while here, have been so welcoming and kind! ~Susan Smith On June 21, 2013, Doug received a lung transplant that saved his life. The otherwise healthy 42-year-old had been diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and spent over a year traveling…
Read MoreMeet Jack and Barb from Florida
Jack and Barb Goltz are long-term guests at Transplant House. Their story touches upon so many themes we see time and again with those on the transplant journey – waiting, advocating for oneself, multiple procedures, a longer road to recovery and having to uproot one’s life quickly to travel away from home for a chance…
Read MoreMeet Erika Marx, Living Kidney Donor
Erika Marx believes in the connectedness of all of us. It’s something she experienced first-hand when constant pain and exhaustion led her down a path to a diagnosis of a rare medical condition – and the decision to give the gift of life to someone she’d never met, while healing herself. “I didn’t have a doctor…
Read MoreMeet Doug, A Living Organ Donor from West Virginia
Doug is a pastor in the small town of Culloden, West Virginia. A year ago, a parishioner approached him, seeking advice: A friend was in need of a partial liver transplant and she had the right blood type to help. However, she had two small children and risked losing her job to take time off…
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