He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother

Before this operation, I have only really been concentrating my thoughts about my brother and what this would do for him.  After my discharge on Friday I have been back on both Saturday and Sunday to see him, and he is literally "in the pink"! I have not seen him looking so well for several years. He was discharged today and now will have a lifestyle change to cope with the anti-rejection drugs.

Kidney donation is called "The gift of life" by many people and it really is. Instead of hardly being able to work, and going home too tired to do much at all other than sleep, Tim will now be able to live his life; each day was simply survival but I think he now has sparkling eyes and an obvious energy. I had hoped and prayed that this would happen and it has, and I am so glad to have been able to help him.

However, the thing which I had not really thought about at all was the effect on the rest of his family.  This hit home to me last Thursday afternoon/evening as four of his adult children came to see him just over 24 hours after the op.  Then, one by one, they popped in to see me in a separate bay. Without exception they were smiling broadly and just delighted to see the colour of their father restored to something pinker and less stressed. One by one they each thanked me for what I had done - they really didn't need to do this as I could already see it in their faces.  After they had all gone I wept as I thought about what had I actually done? In effect, I have given them their father back, and I honestly did not realise that the gift of life was almost as much to them as to him.

There's a song from long ago (when I was a teenager) sung by The Hollies, which has been reverberating through my mind for the last twenty months. It's called "He ain't heavy, he's my brother" and I think it got to No 2 in the charts in 1969 (I said it was a long time ago).  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl5vi9ir49g.  It's got a lot of good phrases, some of which I have used as titles of these entries; it also summarizes fairly well the reasons why I've done this:

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when
But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
If I'm laden at all
Then I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another
It's a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn't weigh me down at all
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
He's my brother
He ain't heavy, he's my brother...

(B. Scott and B. Russell)