Meet Carolyn Sanders Russell. A beautiful mother of two, Amy, and Andrea, and the wife of Richard in Waterloo Iowa.

Carolyn worked as a physical therapist for brain injury patients. On the evening of October 30th 1992, Carolyn arrived home with a horrible headache. She went to her bedroom to lay down for a bit, and her family found her in the fetal position not long after. Carolyn was rushed to the local hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered a cerebral aneurysm, and was rushed to Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. Doctors rushed to do surgery and clamped off the aneurysm, only to discover too late that a second one existed below the first. The second one burst, and there was no saving Carolyn.

Carolyn became an organ donor., and on November 1, 1992, I became a very thankful and grateful recipient of her donated liver. Almost 8 years after I received her gift, I was again blessed to meet her 2 daughters at their home. Now almost 30 years later, I am an accomplished writer, a musician, singer songwriter, and a grandfather. All thanks to one strangers selfless gift of life… I am grateful for each and every day. I am still in occasional contact with one of the two daughters, as one has since passed on. I owe my life to organ donation.