Hello and welcome to the gifted like podcast where we have conversations about Oregon, Tissue and I Donation. I'm Joey Boudreau. I'm Sally Gentry and we are glad that you tuned in. We hope that you choose to take what you hear and spread it in the community.
Please do help us make life happen. Hey coming up on this episode, some free guests coming up. How one mom is on a mission to not only honor her daughter or hero but also to save more lives. Pretty powerful.
And then we'll talk to another mom of a toddler who's hitting milestones. Mom never thought he'd reach. And then we're going to continue our conversation about personality and in this part we're going to have four examples to use. Joey and Lori.
Yes hands on that. Yeah, there you go. I'm excited. I'm scared.
Well at the same time, right? All right. There's lots to get to here on the gifted life. But listen we're easy to find so if you hear something that you like and you say oh my friend needs to hear that.
I did that to your friend Joey. I'm going to call him up. This one. This one.
It's easy to do. All you have to do is find us. You can find us on iTunes, Google Play, Pocketcast or whatever your favorite podcast app may be. Yeah maybe your social media friendly Facebook or donate live Louisiana, Twitter and Instagram.
We're at Donate Live LA and even have a telephone. It's a landline or a cell phone. Whatever you whatever you want. But wait you out there too can call 504.
648-347. We'd love to hear from you. I wasn't sure if she was going to analyze. I didn't know what was coming but I was spreading the word.
See it only takes one year to go. It's a difference. You can do this too. We have lots to get to including honoring heroes.
We do on every gifted life podcast. Sounds like we have lots to do. Yep. Let's get to it.
We are excited to introduce you to a warrior mom as we'll call her. Ms. Tara Storch. She's the mom of a beautiful hero named Taylor.
Hey, Ms. Tara, how are you? Hey, I'm great. Thank you for having me.
Yeah, we appreciate you joining us on the podcast. We know that Taylor Story has been heard loud and clear across the country because of you and because of your work. But we want to learn more about your beautiful baby. Can you tell us about Taylor?
Well, I don't think you have any of your podcasts. I know. I know. Brag about my daughter.
I have three children and with 13 at the time when we were. She was really, how do I smile on my face because when I take a part she brings me. So she had the most beautiful blue eyes, these crystal blue eyes. She always got comments about you.
She was an athlete. She played volleyball. And you know, she was that kid in middle school that could sit at any lunch table if you know what I mean. You know that's really just an extremely caring, very caring to other.
And you know, that's one of the main reasons why we said yes to Oregon donation. You know, our story, Taylor's gift foundation really started with a tragedy. We were at vacation in Beaver Creek, Colorado, a great time in 2010. And it was our very, very first day on then decided to have one more run before the slopes closed.
And my other daughter and I were tired and went down for Hot chocolate to wake with them. Well, it took a long time for them to come off the mountain. And when they did, I only saw my husband and my son and they told me that Taylor, she just had an access family vacation to the worst in the light. And we never thought we hear or any parent ever want to hear an organ donation.
And would you consider it? And we had never talked about organ donation before in our family. I mean, why would we? Right?
And we just never considered until we were faced with it. And at that moment, I thought we were making that was the easiest one to say yes to we knew that if Taylor would have said yes, because of the type of child she went on to save and improve the lives of five people with that gift. So I understand you have been able to meet some of her recipients or have you met all of them now? We have met four out of five recipients, which is and we do not take that lightly.
We know that there's so many donor families like ours who don't get that opportunity to meet the person that has the organ of their loved one. And we have met her part recipient. We've met her kidney and pancreas recipient. We've met her other kidney recipient.
And we've been in touch with her cornea recipient. We young girl who couldn't see and now have fight. And it's amazing. The ripple effect of good that decision in the hospital created.
Absolutely. You talked about, you know, you mentioned amazing. And we've said it before on a podcast on a previous episode. But for us, that is the most amazing time is when the family meets the recipients in that moment is so passionate and it's something that you just never forget.
It's a precious motion. I mean, I'm so glad you've met to be. I'm sure that's giving you so much peace, right? So, but honestly, it's from our side, I don't think it'll ever be a piece lost Taylor.
But what it's done, if given us so much strength, that decision was the right one for our family. Seeing these people who are now able to be a grandfather and see their grandchildren or being able to just, you know, hike up the mountain because that's what we love to do. And being able to see things and be able to just live is truly the word is amazing. It's a miracle.
It's a true miracle. Very powerful. Now, we saw you on a clip of Allen and we'll provide the link for everybody. But you read a poem that Taylor wrote at just 13.
And when we were hearing the words from the poem, we all looked at each other and said, you know, this child was almost older than 13 and her words. So I want to read a little bit of that poem. I'm outgoing and friendly. I wonder how long is forever.
I hear support from my family whenever I need it. I see myself helping people in every way I can. My goodness. And so you in her honor kind of kept that going through what is now Taylor's Foundation?
Taylor's gift. And you're right about that point. I mean, looking back on that, there is so many, like every single one of those lines has come true. And it's just such a beautiful expression of who she was and is.
So we began Taylor's gift foundation really with the engine to increase organ donation registration because, you know, we came back from Tech, Marado, but you know, organ donation was that that one little strand. And we all know how strong a spider web is. One little strand of hope that just kept in the morning knowing that she had made such an inquiry. We started looking into organ donation on the website in April of 2010, such as a month after the accident, Texas only had two percent of registered organ donors in this entire state.
We could not figure out why that was. So we knew, okay, we could not help with this. So the engine of the foundation started with the organ donors sharing the importance and the gift and why you should register. And we're happy to stay with our efforts and the efforts of many organ donation advocates and don't like Texas.
Texas is now up to 48%. And that is millions of people who registered very short about time. So we've seen impact with our efforts. You know, but along the way, we started seeing some very unique needs with that.
One is that organ donation isn't easy to talk about. It's just not. It's hard to sit around the dinner table and talk to your friend that's family about, hey, you know, so you want to be an organ donor, you know, I mean, because people equate that with death. But really, organ donation is about life.
And so we decided that we needed to kind of help change that conversation and make it easier to talk about. So we have coined the phrase, outlive yourself. And that phrase, outlive yourself has really launched us into this national platform. You know, we have the outlive yourself awards that come up every fall that we honor people that are truly making a difference in the lives of us.
And it makes people think what they're doing right now to leave their feet. And we encourage organ donation to be part of that conversation. Wow. I was also reading about the legacy gift program.
Tell us about that. Our legacy gift program is something extremely unique. So, you know, not only do we see that conversation need to change and make it easier to talk about, but we also started seeing this very important need for donor families. So as we all know, there's different sides of organ donation.
There's a donor side, like our recipient side, those who receive that gift of life. And those who are waiting. Well, we have found that there are financial resources out there for those who receive and those who are waiting there really wasn't anything for the donor family. And we all know on this phone call that organ donation comes out of an accident or a tragedy.
It just does. And so these families now are faced with medical expenses and funeral costs and other basic expenses that they were not prepared for. No, they were not prepared for this. So this is where we have been able to come in and help these people with needs that are immediate.
It could be anything from electricity bill. It could be utility bill bringing the next of kin in and even helping with the funeral expenses that are left one. And so we've been able to step in and be a lifeline for the donor side. And I'm really proud to say that Taylor Swift is the only organization in the nation with a set program with OPOs to financially help the nation.
And Tara, that's so amazing of you guys to be able to do this because it's something from the organ recovery agency standpoint. We would love to be able to offer financial assistance and these gifts. Unfortunately, it is somewhat of a conflict of interest. It can be seen as though we are paying for you to say yes as a family.
And we all know it's truly a gift from one to another. And it's not something that's actually paid for. So for you guys to step up and do this for other donor families and kind of pay it forward as you are, it is just amazing and I applaud you for that. Thank you.
Any special donor families, I mean those family advocates, they're the front line, right? They're with these donor families. And like you said, the OPOs cannot legally provide any sort of assistance to these other families. But these family advocates are sitting there and are listening to these donor families to talk about their needs and what are going on in their world.
And so after organ donation has been complete and everything has been done on that part, then that family coordinator comes back to that information. And we approve it really within 24 hours because it's an immediate need. So that OPOs have allowed us. Y'all came, OPOs cannot.
So it's been wonderful to see from the OPOs that they just feel great to be able to have something to offer after they know these families and organ donation has been done to be able to go back to them and say we can help. That is amazing. And this is Senator in Texas now, but you're wanting to grow, right? Yes, we're in Texas and New York and we're continuing to other states this year.
So our goal is to have this in all 58 OPOs in the next few years. Well, I'm listening to the determination in this mama's voice and I think you're going to do it. I love it. You can do really anything when you're why you're thinking that.
That's right. I love that. I love that. I love that.
I live yourself. I like that tagline as well. If you want to see sweet pictures of Miss Taylor and learn more about this Taylor's gift dot org if you're on Twitter, it's at Taylor's gift and if you're on Instagram, it's at Taylor's gift org. And of course, we'll have all that information for you.
But Tara, we just enjoyed visiting with you. We enjoyed learning about your baby. We could hear you smiling when we were talking about that hero and the mission that you're on to help other families just incredible. Thank you for having me.
We are joined now by Miss Brittany Ellis. Hey, Miss Britt. Hey, how are you? I am good.
I call Miss Brittany a warrior mom. She is the mom of a transplant recipient. He's a toddler now. So he's all over the place, which is good news, but they did not think they would get to this point, which is why I love their journey, their story.
And Brittany, what I love about you is that you really shared your story with everybody. You're in the community of central in the Baton Rouge area and started a Facebook page and just kind of started chronicling your lives, right? Why would you do that? I think the main goal was to spread awareness about this disease and then it turned into spreading awareness about organization because it no longer has this disease.
So that was our main goal was to just always spread awareness and, you know, if people wanted to pray for us, it could and it was just an easy way to update everybody. So Brittany, you talked about this disease. Can you tell us a little bit about his disease that he had? Yes, he was born with a rare liver disease called billy area archery show where bio doesn't flow from your liver like it's supposed to.
And, you know, we're kind of told in the very beginning, if you guys have this disease that transplant is in our future, it could be, you know, a couple months later, it could be a few years later, they do a surgery to kind of hopefully give your child some time to grow in order to receive a transplant, but, you know, it didn't really work out that way for us. And we ended up needing a transplant sooner rather than later. We always ask folks who start to volunteer with us, what did you think about donation before all of this was kind of late at your feet? So for you, you had heart on your license prior to getting pregnant with Riggs's older brother, right?
And then what happened? Right. So then it was in between those boys are only 17 months apart. So I had to go renew my license.
And before I went, you know, husband talks and he said, you know, are you gonna renew your heart? And I said, I don't know, probably not because I feel like I'm a mom now. I need to, you know, be saved in case I get in the wreck. I don't want them to, you know, give my work into the way.
So I took it off whenever the lady asked me at the OMB. I said, no, I don't want it on there. I'm not debating how it worked. So it was, you know, that was my thought going into the second pregnancy.
And that was how it was until we were kind of, you know, brought into this arena and, you know, quickly changed my mind, quickly signed back up. And I can tell you, Brittany, as a former ER nurse, I used to get that all the time. And I would say, we are not a transplant center. You don't have to worry.
We don't look at your license. We're more concerned as to see if you have insurance. Well, and then now, you know, it's just funny how life works because she's one of our biggest advocates, spreading facts. We hope you make an educated decision.
Because that was made not an education. Right. So we have this group of LSU students called Rouge Communications. They love Mr.
Briggs. We just recently did some media. Because what is your dude who's about to turn two in December, right? Tell us some of the things that he's doing now that you never thought would be possible.
So now he is crawling around like a maniac. He is almost walking. He thinks that he can walk up the stairs by himself. He is feeding himself.
He is, you know, his personality is just coming out of the woodwork. And it is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my entire life. He is starting to say more and more every day. He recently said, mama, and for the first time, you know, that happens around like nine months old.
And so we waited a long time to hear it. It was very exciting to hear. Yeah. So Brittany, let's we actually have some of that audio of this sweet boy saying those sweet words.
Let's share that with everyone. And we are all smiles here, Brittany. I'm sure you weren't too. Yes.
I'm so excited to hear. I never get to listen to that. And then what's neat guys, we recently got a TV interview and Riggs was blowing kisses. I'm like, we had some students there who were working on a donation campaign.
We had a very cute reporter and he was making friends, huh? Oh, yeah. And even when we watched it back, when it came on the news, he was trying to kiss the TV because he was a reporter. And he tried to kiss her the whole time.
Oh, my goodness. So Brittany, for you, donation is what if you had to describe it? It is just the biggest part of our lives. And we feel that because it's so big and such a blessing in our lives that the only thing that we can do is just keep writing awareness and keep telling people about the good things that come from organization.
And hopefully they can see that. That's why we share so much of our lives with everybody is that without these things and these miracles, we would not be seeing the things that we're seeing today. So that's just how we think about it. I love it.
And the Roble Run For Life is an awareness event for Donation in the Baton Rouge area. And you guys are participating in that issue. Tell us the name of your crew and tell us what your goal is with that. So our team name is called Team Web Your Liver because when he was going down to get his transplant, we told everybody and everybody told him you need to love that liver.
So we thought that would be a good team name to have. And we just feel like, since it is such a big part of our life, this is just a tiny thing that we can do to give support to y'all and everybody else that has such a big impact on our life. And we want to get as much team members as we can. We're hoping to get some team shirts made and give back the money from those shirts that are getting made to give a little extra donation.
So that is so great. And we always hear from our donor families and they always love to see recipients. And they always love to see Briggs out there doing so well running around in the kids zone and having a good time. So we appreciate you participating.
If folks want to follow your story, what's your page or does he have a fan page, this little guy? Yes, he has a page that's called, Blessing for Briggs and he can just search for it on Facebook and it'll come up. If you even type in just Elisor or organ transplant, Louisiana, it also comes up. He's everywhere.
He's a cutie. We love it. And if you look on our Facebook page, donate life Louisiana, you'll see that recent media story with Briggs walking a little low and sweet kisses. Just great.
And then you and Brian did great as well. We appreciate you, you worry your parents. Thank you so much. In our family support segment today, Sally continues the conversation about personality.
Yeah, as we did on the last episode, we talked a lot about what personality is. I learned that I'm not multiple personalities. Thank goodness. She's not finished.
And it was interesting, Sally, you know, I was listening to Brittany talk about Briggs and thinking about how he's becoming so social, you know, and of course, and I find out he's a Sagittarius, like myself. There you go. That explains it all. She's getting on personality.
His personality now, like you can see there. It is about to turn two goes with what you've been telling us. That's right. Following through with all this information that we've now been talking about with personality, you know, there's many facets that do make up one's personality and how we perceive the world, because not a single one of us perceive it in the same way as the other person.
And that depends on where you're from geographically here in the United States or across the world. And it can have to do also with what is the social mores or the social context of where you live, religion, philosophy, which kind of combines for you to have different thoughts about what goes on with the same again situation and how you may perceive it. But you know, what makes up our worldview is threefold. And the first is cognitive.
That's how we think about things. The second is our morals. And that's how do we discern between right and wrong. And there's the pragmatic part, the part that says, okay, what do we do with what's right or wrong?
Because in the reality of our whole world around us, there's really not a right or wrong, but there are the consequences, which then we have to work on that part. Do I want to pay that consequence? Well, in different circumstances, some people say, I don't care how pay the consequence. But I think along with all that too is what does that mean for us?
So let's do an example. You know, here's looking at me. I don't know. I mean, here's Lori.
She's been waiting in line. Say they're going to one of their favorite restaurants. Well, there's a line. So she and Mike are chit chat.
And there's maybe a little bit of a distance between her and her husband and this other couple in front. Well, here comes Joe and his wife. Look, this is a great place. We'll just cut in line here.
Yeah, it's open. Yeah, there was no one there. Why not? We're kind of in a hurry, because we got somewhere we need to be later.
So now Lori, what do you think about that? Say, I don't like confrontation. I wouldn't say anything, but I would mean look at him. Like, I know you just did that.
I have three babies here that are hungry and you cut in line. I I wouldn't say anything, but I would think very highly. Okay. Well, so there would be that response or there might be the response of, oh well, they must be in a big hurry than we are.
We're enjoying ourselves just having conversation or there might be the confrontation. What are you doing? Cutting in front of me. Excuse me.
Did you not see me? Oh, maybe I would do as now as now Kirsten and Troy are standing back watching this unfold. We see then these different behaviors emerging because it's really how you perceive your world or how you perceive your world. I mean, we all have a different reaction to it.
But of course, Troy, Kirsten and I be going, ha ha ha look at that. You cut in front of her. So thanks friends. That was fun.
Well, but many times we just don't even stop and think about these things because we're so focused on ourselves. And that's not to say selfishly at times it may be, but most of the time we are focused on ourselves because that's how we make it through our life. That's how we negotiate our environment. If we don't, then we're constantly running into problems or causing chaos within the whole system.
So, when we don't think about it, we kind of go, well, it doesn't everybody think like me or doesn't everybody have the same view of what's going on. Well, with all this, no, we do not, none of us do. And so I think that that what happens is when we fail to see many times how we impact other people's lives, even though we may not think so, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And so we all we're all impacting one another in some form or fashion.
And this is where donation comes in because Lopez steps in at a very crucial and critical time as you know, in people's lives. So all this talk about what creates our personality, you know, whether it's cognitive, pragmatic or all the personality traits that you talked about in our last episode, we as LOPA try to understand that within ourselves our own personalities and then of course with grieving families. So can you tell us how we can work that in, especially with families at such a difficult and tragic time in their life? Yes, I think what you find with our staff, the LOPA staff, that when you're working with donor families and recipients both, it does give us greater insight into the differences that each of us do have.
And not to say that we're sitting there and analyzing everything that's unfolding, but most of us have that ability, I think, across every system that we can see what's going on and how to empathize. But I think more so with our staff in that what they do is they walk alongside these families at that very difficult time through all the grief, the pain, the misery, the desperation, anger, what other thoughts or feelings might be emerging. They're able to say, you know, we're going to ask you to step aside out of your own reality or your own perception of your world. And even though you know your loved one fairly well, you now need to step into his or her world, what do you think they would really like to have done?
Now many times they've already signed their driver's license or the registry, but then other times they've not. So then, you know, the staff has to spend some time helping them see that this is something the greater good here is really truly giving a gift, a life-saving gift. And I don't know how many times I have said to families after the fact, what an honor, when your loved one could no longer be helped for you and your family to step aside, but those feelings just don't hold for a moment and say, I really want to help other people. That's what he or she would have wanted.
And it's never one of those idols sort of, yeah, I thought that's what they might want. It's met with such heartfelt conviction. So I think that that shows that the donor families have such a tremendous impact on others' lives. I mean, I don't know how else you can impact anyone even more so.
Right, I'm giving life. Absolutely. And I think this is part of our world and the jobs that we all do here with Loba, where kindness is really just a paramount importance because you are truly giving to others. And so regardless of the circumstances of their loved one's death, they're able to transcend those personal thoughts, feelings, and say, yes, we do want to help others.
And the really good thing that binds folks together is that gift and that giving of life. And I think that's where what we do is just a wonderful thing that helps people walk through this part of their world. Because you know, in reality, for most of us, when there is a crisis situation, and this is truly a crisis for every family, that's when we do have an opportunity to make it better for us, make it better for our loved one, and for those folks who've been waiting. So it's truly in the giving.
And you see it in crises that happen, you know, like the one here with the flooding, with everyone who was out there to give themselves, you know, as much as they could to help others with the hurricane Matthew and things like that. You just see it. That's part of our personalities, I think, in Italy, almost as humans, or at least with our culture, certainly, that they want to give and then to ultimately give that last gift of life at the last moment like that. You know, here at Loba in our extended family, it's made different people from different walks of life, different talents, making life happen.
Now I can add different personality. Absolutely. Do that. All right, you want to hear something from Sally you want her to explain a little bit more about what you just heard here today, info at loba.org.
Okay, guys, as we do in every podcast, we want to honor a hero. Yeah, Laurie, in this podcast, we are going to honor Caitlyn Glenn. Yes, and we're sharing these stories from Caitlyn's family. This was written by Caitlyn's mom, my daughter Caitlyn Katie Bug, Marie Glenn, passed on his life to heaven on October 15th, 2015, at the young age of 17.
And it was her wish to save others by means of organ donation. She is survived by her mom and dad and two younger sisters. She will always be loved and missed by all she came in contact with. Her love of life and music will live on forever.
She has a laugh and smile that's larger than life and bright enough to light your way through the darkest times in love. See you again soon, but not too soon. Long live, Caitlyn's mom. This is from Caitlyn's sister.
We love hearing these stories and sharing them with you. Caitie Bug was a true heaven sent angel. Her laugh was contagious. It was impossible to not laugh when she did.
Caitie saved two lives. She was a true sister to me. I miss her every day. There are memories of her all over the house.
As I sit up at night, still waiting for her to come home, I sit there and think about what life would be like if she was still here watching me grow up. She is missed by her family, her friends, her band members, and well, pretty much anyone who she touched in her lifetime is from Caitlyn's family. You can read more of Caitlyn's story. You can see her picture on our heroes page, lopa.war.
And now we pause to say thank you to Caitlyn for the gift of life. In our question and answer segment today, here's one from a sal. Two years ago, I got a tissue transplant from my knee. Without it, I would most likely not be able to walk.
I was wondering if you could tell me how I could get info about my donor. I would really like to write that family a letter. For additional information about how to write a letter to your donor's family, please contact us at info at lopa.org. And we'll be glad to provide you with information so you may contact your family.
And that way you'll find out a little bit more about your donor. Thank you so much for asking. Yeah, it's great that these connections can be made and there's resources available if you need help writing. That's what family services is all about.
Info at lopa.org if you have a question, you want to send our way. You can also give us a call. 504-648-34-77. Another episode of the gift of life in the books, guys.
That's right. We want to give special thanks to Tera Starch for sharing Taylor with us and then of course starting up Taylor's gift foundation and then seeing the need and addressing with legacy gift the things that they're doing there for our donor families that no one else can really do. That's quite amazing. I determined.
Very determined. And to see that need, that's really special. Of course, we want to thank Brittany Elleser for updating us on baby Briggs letting us know how he's hitting his milestone with milestone. He would have never hit otherwise.
And of course saying, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, And he's given sweet kisses. Oh yeah. Awe, he's just a little flirt. That's definitely a December baby.
As is Joey. We tell you- yeah it's raw. Oh right too. But another determined mom and then, you know, they really share their whole families with us like they invite us in their homes.
They tell us their stories. It's just incredible. It's their goal is to honor heroes, to celebrate life, to save more lives. That's just incredible.
So if you're out there thinking, what can I do anything? One person can make a difference as we hear in all these stories on all these podcasts. So that's going to be you. Maybe.
Today, right guys? We want you to go out and do something you would normally do to help make life happen. You can do it. Have a good one.