Divorce can be difficult, even damaging, for many families — but not all. Case in point is a Minnesota couple who have known each other for nearly 50 years since high school. After 22 years of marriage, they’ve spent the past two decades as an amicably divorced couple who have made a conscious decision to “get along” for the good of the family.
And even 20 years after their split, Mary Ziegler had no problem donating one of her kidneys to her ex-husband, Bill Heinrichs, the St. Cloud Times reported.
Friendly split
“We kind of made a commitment at the time to get along,” explained Heinrichs of the divorce. “And to not do anything poorly to each other and to the kids. You know all those bad divorce things, we agreed not to do that.”
Following the divorce, both remarried, but stayed close as they joined forces in raising their children, so much so that they all came together for Thanksgiving to celebrate the kidney donation.
“I mean, our kids have always been really proud to tell the story of their mom and dad and their stepmom and dad. But now, I think they were really proud to say, yeah, my mom gave my dad a kidney, and they’re divorced,” said Zeigler.
A donor match
Heinrichs had dealt for some time with kidney failure brought on by diabetes and hypertension, and a search was conducted for a suitable donor to give Heinrichs a healthy kidney.
More than 30 people volunteered, including Heinrichs’ children, and though a couple of matches were discovered, those people were either too young or not healthy enough themselves to make the donation.
It came down to Zeigler, who had maintained good health and fitness her whole life, shared the same blood type and antigens as her ex-husband, and was willing to sacrifice to help save him.
“The universe was just kind of like, you’re the one. I’m a big believer in when you’re tapped on the shoulder, you should answer the call,” she said.
An ex-wife donating a kidney to her ex-husband may sound like a rather unique situation, but Ziegler said the doctors told her that such exchanges are actually more common than some might expect.
“One of the surgeons that I talked to, he said, it’s more common than you think, especially when they’re older like us. And for the same reasons. You share children. You share grandchildren. You’re 60 years old and (know) what’s important in life now. It’s not all the crap that happened before. It’s about the rest of your life,” said Zeigler.
[show_poll poll_id=1068]
“I don’t think what I did was too amazing,” Ziegler said, adding that it would have been more difficult to donate “altruistically” to a stranger. “I was thrilled to be able to do it. To do it for, not just him, but for my kids and for Linda, everybody. So, I’m pretty grateful that I did take good care of myself all my life.”
As for Heinrichs, he is still recovering from the addition of a third kidney to compensate for his two bad kidneys, though he is steadily improving and has made a new commitment to better manage his diabetes going forward.
1,130 Responses
A person essentially help to make critically posts I’d state. This is the first time I frequented your website page and thus far? I surprised with the research you made to make this actual put up extraordinary. Great process!
Good info. Lucky me I ran across your website by chance (stumbleupon). I have book marked it for later!
What i do not understood is in fact how you are no longer actually much more smartly-liked than you might be now. You are very intelligent. You understand therefore considerably in relation to this topic, produced me individually consider it from so many numerous angles. Its like men and women don’t seem to be interested until its one thing to do with Woman gaga! Your personal stuffs nice. Always care for it up!
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is rare to see a great blog like this one these days..
Hello there, You’ve performed an excellent job. Ill certainly digg it and individually suggest to my friends. I’m confident they will be benefited from this web site.
Your manner of addressin this subject is both wonderful and also motivating.
Thanks for your marvelous posting! I certainly enjoyed reading it, you may be a great author.I will remember to bookmark your blog and may come back down the road. I want to encourage you to ultimately continue your great posts, have a nice weekend!
Ive recently started a website, the info you offer on this web site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work.
Thanks for every other fantastic post. Where else may anybody get that type of info in such an ideal approach of writing? I’ve a presentation subsequent week, and I’m at the look for such information.
You are so awesome! I do not believe I have read something like that before. So great to discover somebody with a few unique thoughts on this topic. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This site is one thing that’s needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!|
I simply couldn’t go away your web site before suggesting that I actually enjoyed the usual info an individual provide to your visitors? Is going to be again incessantly to inspect new posts
Is any person here with facebook as well as want to friend myself? What exactly are your own twitting names, it is a excellent submit by the way. Also is there a good RSS feed I could not find it?
hi!,I really like your writing so much! proportion we keep in touch extra approximately your post on AOL? I require an expert in this area to unravel my problem. May be that is you! Taking a look ahead to see you.
you’ve got an ideal blog here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my weblog?
of course like your web-site however you have to take a look at the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I to find it very troublesome to inform the reality then again Ill certainly come back again.
I like the valuable info you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again here frequently. I am quite certain I’ll learn many new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!
I’ve been browsing online more than 3 hours today, yet I by no means found any interesting article like yours. Its beautiful worth sufficient for me. In my opinion, if all web owners and bloggers made good content material as you probably did, the internet shall be a lot more useful than ever before.
951123 824633Hello, Neat post. There is an concern along with your web site in internet explorer, could test thisK IE still could be the marketplace leader and a huge portion of other folks will miss your magnificent writing because of this issue. 393121
very nice post, i certainly love this website, keep on the good work
Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative. I¡¦m going to watch out for brussels. I¡¦ll be grateful if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
Si vous suivez ces quelques conseils, votre page Facebook remontera progressivement dans les résultats de recherche de Google. Mais comme toujours, il va falloir être patient et tenace… Mais rappelez-vous, dans l’algorithme de Google, le nombre de likes ou l’engagement de la page ne sont pas pris en compte et même si c’est positif d’avoir un grand nombre de likes, cela n’aura pas d’effet direct sur le positionnement de votre site dans les réponses du moteur. Et ne vous trompez pas, si votre but c’est la visibilité de votre entreprise sur Google, il vaut mieux travailler le référencement naturel de votre site internet directement.
whoah this blog is great i love reading your posts. Keep up the great paintings! You already know, lots of individuals are looking round for this information, you could aid them greatly.
I am not certain the place you are getting your info, but great topic. I needs to spend a while learning more or working out more. Thank you for excellent information I used to be looking for this information for my mission.
Great Solid Advice About Nutritional Vitamins That Anyone Can Use Had been you in excellent well being as a healthier kid? Do you remember the things you had been ingesting and drank back then? Will you continue to consume far healthier currently? Read on to learn about how vitamins can replace with what your nutrients. Vitamins has to be synthesized just to be made use of by our bodies consequently, so you should know about any possible allergic reactions. By way of example, calcium mineral can make iron consumption tough. Supplements can replace with what you cannot try this. Health supplements can replace with whatever you are unable to do that. Lots of people recognize your body aches but aren’t confident why. If they’re strained or taut, sea food oil and nutritional E are wonderful methods to aid your muscles out simply because they can soften them. Vitamin A is wonderful benefits for you. Huge dosage amounts may be toxic, so stick to about 2300 IU.You can get A Vitamin from squash, dark leafy plants, and dark leafy vegetables. In the present hard economic system, we frequently compromise our health and wellness having take out devoid of vitamins and nutrients and vitamins. Get some minerals and vitamins every single day. In the current hard economic system, it’s simple to disregard our health and wellness and immediately try to eat fastfood devoid of crucial nutritional supplements you want. Have yourself some vitamin supplements to actually have the nutrients and vitamins to be healthful. In the present tough economic climate, we quite often sacrifice our health and wellbeing consuming fast food without nutrients and nutrients. Get yourself some bottled nutritional vitamins so that you have the vitamins and minerals to be healthier. Since you now are preparing food for yourself, you’ll need to learn how to manage your state of health. There is certainly always much more to learn, so continue to keep studying, however you’ve just study some terrific advice. You will feel good, as apply everything you learn. This can help you live a prolonged, more content lifestyle.
I was very pleased to search out this internet-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful learn!! I positively enjoying each little bit of it and I’ve you bookmarked to take a look at new stuff you weblog post.
very nice publish, i certainly love this web site, keep on it