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Health & Fitness

When a Hero Comes Along

When somebody does something heroic, you want to show your appreciation–and sometimes that can be as simple as a home-cooked meal.

Living an ocean away from your family can be tough, so you learn to count on friends. When we moved here, I made friends fast–having kids, it was quite easy as you instantly have something in common with other parents. Over the years some of my close friends have become my surrogate family, we spend holidays together, we laugh together and sometimes cry together. In good times and bad, we are there for each other.

One family, in particular, are my nearest and dearest friends. Sherry and I joke about being sisters and her mother even calls herself my “Italian Mom.” We both have two daughters in the same grades and they are all close friends. Jeff is handy and can fix or build anything, my husband does not know one end of a wrench from the other; it's a match made in heaven. I feel blessed to know them; the DelGaudios are the kindest most giving people you could ever hope to meet.

Recently Jeff and his family became my heroes. When Jeff learned a family friend, Joe, was dying of liver failure, he immediately called the hospital and made an appointment to get tested to see if he could be a donor. He had to go through rigorous testing, blood work, scans, etc. Then he had to meet with a counselor to reassure them he had thought this through. Donating a piece of liver is a major surgery and not without risk.

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Jeff was declared a match, but there was an underlying medical problem he would need to have treated before surgery could go ahead. Meanwhile Joe was in and out of hospital, his health was failing fast. During the four months Jeff had to wait to be cleared medically, his resolve never wavered and he kept working out to get himself into the best shape for surgery.

Jeff and Joe will be wheeled into the OR on Tuesday, June 19. Both face a lengthy recovery both in and out of the hospital.

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To thank Jeff and his family and help them out during this tough time, I set up a Meal Train account. This is an online calendar where people can sign up to bring meals. I figured Sherry would be busy running back and forth to the hospital and will have lots of other things to worry about so this would take one thing off her plate.

If you would like to help by providing a meal, please click on the link: http://www.mealtrain.com/?id=m61p1f7n0ugt and if you would like to do something for the recipient and his family, please e-mail me.

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