Chapter 44

Days pass. Lives move on. Girls go back to cheer practice and men and women make decisions about what they are going to do for the future.

I think it was a week later after my conversation with Becky that the big day arrived. I dressed in jeans and a sports jacket with leather shoes on. I looked casual yet professional yet approachable.

The hospital and radio station decided that a hotel ballroom would be better than a small conference room at the hospital.

Ashlee, Brenda and I arrived at the hotel down near the plaza and the valet took my jeep to the parking garage for me. The ladies had on shorts and nice shirts with strappy sandals. They looked cute.

"Paul, so good to see you." 'New Boss' said when we entered the hotel lobby. We shook hands and then he gave air kisses to Ashlee and Brenda. "We have a room upstairs for us to use until air time. So come with me and we will get you all settled and prepped for radio.

"I hope not too much prepping, I don't know how much talking I'm going to do. I'll probably spend most of the time crying if you want to know."

"No, I think you'll be fine. Come with me."

We went up one floor to a room and there they had a makeup artist who put stuff on my face, checked over the ladies and made sure that they looked good as well. We were then seated in the room while 'New Boss' ran off to do what 'New Bosses' do. An engineer came in and put a mic on me then tried to help the girls with their mics.

We relaxed, or at least that is what we supposed to do, all I could do was sit there. I was scared to death. I hope that I didn't make a fool of myself.

"Ok, time to go." 'New Boss' came to the room after a while and brought us back down in the elevator and then around to a conference room. He opened the door and welcomed us in. When I walked into the room, a LOUD CHEER rose up and caught me completely off guard. There must be 200 people there in the room. 'New Boss' took me by the arm and lead me up the stairs to the stage where Dana and Scott were sitting with their radio gear setup. I sat down and then turned to the crowd and looked out over all of the people sitting there. There was no way that my little family could have touched that many lives. I saw a bunch of little kids in the front row with adults behind them and then row upon row of other standing and cheering for me.

"Thank you for being here. Thank you Paul for joining us." Scott said while standing trying to get everyone to settle down so that he could talk. "Paul what you have here are the people lives that you have touched through your family."

"All of these people?" I said through the tears pouring down my face.

"Yes, all of these people have been touched in some way by the gift you gave them of life through your family." Dana said.

I wiped my face and then turned my head to blow my nose. "This is unbelievable. How can this be?"

By now, the audience had calmed down and had taken their seats. "We have many people who are here to tell you. First up, Dr Johansen, from the Kansas City hospital that did a heart transplant from your wife who is going to introduce you to the family that was touched by you."

A distinguished older man came forward and took the chair next to us. "Thank you. First of all, I want to start off by thanking you Mr. Johnson for the donations you made. I have never seen anything like this and when Becky called me, I couldn't say no." He held out his hand to me and I took it. "You are by far the most generous man I have ever met. A true hero to be sure."

"Thank you."

Dr. Johansson went on to tell me that my wife's heart was able to be given and transplanted to a mother of four kids whose husband was currently overseas serving in the Air Force. A woman came up with her four kids ranging in ages from 15 to 8. She was crying tears of joy and when she opened her shirt to show me the scar she had running down her chest more tears fell from my eyes and we hugged. Or at least I hugged, she sobbed and held onto me like I was her savior. I was offered a stethoscope and I put it to my ears and she held it to her chest where I heard the lub-dub of my wife's heart beating away in another person's chest. More tears fell from my eyes and now it was my turn to cry. We held each other while I listened to her heart beating away in her chest.

When we let go of each other, an engineer came forward and placed a mic on her chest so that the radio could hear the lub-dubs.

The sounds were broadcast out over the local PA system and radio station live so that everyone in the audience and in Kansas City could hear the sound.

Scott came to her with a mic and she said "You gave me and my kids a whole new life. I was days away from heart failure and with my husband in the Air Force, I had no idea what I was going to do with my kids or who was going to take care of them. You saved me, you saved my kids and you saved our whole family from being broken apart. Thank you Mr. Johnson for this gift of life."

We hugged again and the audience cheered again. She went back to her seat and Scott and Dana tried to continue the show.

More doctors came forward to thank me for what I did. More people came forward after they got lungs, hearts, kidneys, livers, skin, parts of eyes. They just kept coming and coming. I kept crying and they cried and kids cried, needless to say, my hanky was wet and I had to switch to paper Kleenexes.

Ashlee and Brenda got hugs and thanks and they both went through a bunch of Kleenexes as well.

When it was finally done, an hour had passed; I had listened to three hearts beating away in new chests and hugged each of the people who got them. Other showed me scars where they got their parts installed and needless to say I was wrung out. I don't think I have ever cried so much in my life. I don't think anyone in the Kansas City listening area had a dry eye either. This was huge.

When I was let go to leave, several TV crews came to me and asked for a comment for their stations.

"Sure." They took me to the back of the ballroom where a small mic stand was set up and lights were ready.

"I have a couple of things to say. Donate life. My tragedy brought life to a room full of people. Donate to save others. Donate life. Bring life out of death."

"Mr. Johnson, how did all of this come together?"

"Becky from the hospital called me because a number of these people wanted to meet me. They wanted to thank me for saving them. What could I say? My girlfriend took over and made it all happen for me. I was just not able to process it at the time and I'm still not sure I understand it all."