We are home again after a great time in Gainesville. Besides enjoying the reunion, we visited the hospital twice to see the nurses and they appreciated the See's Chocolates. We had breakfast with some of our transplant friends Saturday morning and then visited in the hotel lobby til noon. We also enjoyed pizza at Satchell's, a very unusual place.










This man, Jose, was transplanted the same day as Vernon. The other guys who were transplanted near the same time, David, Chuck and Rollin, weren't there.











When we checked out of the hotel, Vernon rode the cart to return it to the lobby - still a young boy in that body. Zoom, zoom, zoom!















We received sad news this afternoon. A young woman we expected to see at the reunion was found dead in her bed Friday morning. She'd been feeling bad and had come to Shands on Wednesday to see one of the doctors. She wasn't hospitalized and her mother says the doctor doesn't have an explanation. An autopsy is being done to try to determine what happened. I estimate her age at 28.

One more thing: among all the reunion participants Friday night was one member of a donor family with the recipient. The mother of another donor planned to attend this reunion but that family had a difficult situation come up that prevented her. We hope Lisa wants to attend with us next year. (Still waiting for the paperwork that will give us direct contact with her.)