Jerry Davich
Metro columnist
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Janaya Drummond's letter to Santa didn't ask for toys or candy or electronic devices. The 8-year-old girl's Christmas wish list requested only one thing: "I want my mom to be helthy."
Seven words. An adorable misspelling. And the sincere hope from a young child for Christmas.
Her mother, Kim Drummond, has struggled with liver disease since 2016. This year she's been in desperate need of a liver donor. Time feels like it's slipping through her frail fingers.
"I don't know how long I have to live, to be honest," she told me with a strained voice. "I'm trying to be positive and think forward while waiting for a live donor to give me a transplant. I'm praying there is someone out there who is a match for me."
The 58-year-old Portage woman needs two other surgeries in the future, but only after she receives a liver transplant.
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"I have a growth on my pancreas. And a hernia," she explained.
I've written dozens of columns about people in need of a life-saving transplant. Most recently, I wrote about Carl Summerhill, who needs a healthy kidney from a living donor.
"Or I will die much sooner than I would otherwise," he told me in August.
The 32-year-old father of three young children from Valparaiso spoke with a tired voice but a hopeful tone. He didn't ask for pity. He didn't ask for condolences. He asked only for help to find a match to receive a new kidney. (Watch a video of Summerhill in his own words at NWI.com.)
"Organ donation saved my life once and I'm hoping it can do it again," Summerhill said before undergoing dialysis treatment.
After that column was published, a reader named Ben Rosenberger reached out to me.
"I read your article about Carl Summerhill. I've done some testing and we are a match. Still more testing to go, but I feel fairly confident that I'll be able to donate a kidney for him," he said. "I really feel like it's going to happen. Something makes me think it's happening this year. Maybe I'm just hoping for a Christmas miracle."
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Since then, he's underwent all the needed testing. He and Summerhill are awaiting a transplant date, possibly in January.
"We are very hopeful," Summerhill's wife, Sidney, told me.
Drummond wants to be just as hopeful that a transplant match is out there for her too. To be tested, contact the Living Donor Project Coordinator at University of Chicago Medicine at 773-702-0620 or [email protected].
Drummond has been surrounded by kids for more than 30 years at Portage Public Library, where she worked in the children's department.
"I just always enjoyed being around children," Drummond's said.
In 1995, Drummond lost a young daughter.
"She was in kindergarten," she said.
Drummond and her husband, Kevin, later adopted four children, ages 6, 8, 10 and 13, including their daughter Janaya, who attends Jones Elementary School in Portage.
Someday she will look back at Christmas 2024 and hopefully still possess her letter to Santa with its simple request. It will be a seven-worded time capsule for her. And it will immediately transport her back in time to a simpler time when a letter to Santa served as a sincere prayer, not a school project.
I hope she will look back with fondness, not sadness. Christmas Eve can serve up both emotions, sometimes in the same moment. Regular readers of this column may know that my dad died on Christmas Eve 1987. It's been so long ago that I've lived without a father much longer than I lived with one. Ever since his death, this holiday has always included his memory.
I don't want Janaya to experience a similar outcome, looking back at Christmastime 2024. Neither does her mother.
"I'm just waiting for a Christmas miracle," she said.
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Contact Jerry at [email protected]. Find him on Facebook and other socials. Opinions are those of the writer.
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Metro columnist
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