Organ donation is a highly personal decision. I am a donor as are all my family members. What it means to be a donor was brought back home to me recently. My oldest brother and his wife lost their 24 year-old daughter in a horrific traffic accident several years ago. As anyone who has lost a young family member knows, it is not something from which you ever recover.

My niece who was in perfect health prior to the accident received only head injuries from the accident. On the night she was injured, my brother and sister-in-law were asked if they wished to have her organs given to people awaiting transplants.

Despite the horrendous pain they were in they thought about others and how the donation of my niece's body parts could save a life and they agreed to give whatever was needed.

Kathleen's kidney was given to an adult female. That was all they knew for a very long time. My sister-in-law always stayed in touch with the Indiana Organ Procurement group and let them know my family would like to know how the recipient(s) were doing.

A few years ago, they received a letter from the woman who had Kathleen's kidney. She recovered and was able to resume her life because of it. She was a mother of three daughters.

She died recently and my brother and sister-in-law received letters from all three of her daughters telling them how much the donation of that kidney meant to them and their family.

Because Kathleen's kidney went to their mother, she was able to see her daughters graduate from high school and college, marry and have grandchildren. Their children would have a face and voice and many memories of a grandmother. It was a gift for which, they said, they would be forever grateful.

I can't begin to tell you how much it meant to my brother and sister-in-law and the rest of our family to know that losing our daughter, sister, and niece could provide happiness and an extended life to someone else. Not just one person but to every member of that family.

The pain of her loss will never go away but knowing somehow a part of her lives on, helps our family to better deal with losing her.

You can sign up to be an organ donor when you renew your drivers' license or you can go to the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization's website at www.iopo.org.

As I said in the beginning of this blog, donation is a very personal decision often made under terrible circumstances. You never know what tomorrow will bring so plan ahead by signing up to donate. And, live life everyday as if it were your last. Live it fully.

Live, love, laugh.