by: Deena S Jones

As a Christian minister with the Evangelical Covenant Church, Deena Jones often reminded her congregants never to take life for granted. Then, seemingly out of the blue, she suddenly experienced acute kidney failure. She found herself on dialysis, as well as on the national kidney transplant waiting list. Her younger brother Jim passed all the tests to become a living donor. Then tragedy struck, and her transplant took an unexpected turn. This is the story of one woman's journey through solid organ transplant, and the gift of life that followed.