The Clink family was one of the several families who have stayed at the Family House during it?s inaugural year. Samantha Clink, whose mother received a life saving transplant in January 2012, shared her transplant journey and how Family House staff helped her family through one of their darkest hours.
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The Clink Family
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When did your transplant experience first begin?
January 26, 2012
How did your journey take you to Philadelphia?
When my mom?s edema moved into her stomach and she was forced to resort to a wheelchair at the age of 41.
When did you first hear of the Family House?
When my mom was unconscious on life support at Temple University Hospital and my father and I had nowhere to go.
How long was your stay with the Family House?
Three Months
How has/had the Family House impacted your transplant experience?
Words cannot express the amount of pressure and stress this place has relieved from our family during this instrumental moment in our lives.
What is your favorite feature of the Family House?
There are a lot of wonderful features, but the most comforting is knowing we?re always welcome and we?re always met with staff who are sincere about making us feel at home. There is never any worries about finding a hotel during a time that is already stressful.
How is your transplant experience today?
It is an ongoing roller coaster ride. It has gotten significantly better, but it is a treatment that is manageable, as opposed to a disease that is not. My mom?s transplant has given us a new respect for life. So many things are taken for granted, not a single day, a single word, or a single breath should ever be taken for granted ? we know that now.
How has the Family House helped you and your family during your transplant experience?
They have provided us with the basic essentials for life and so much more. They have social workers on hand, and a team of staff members that care for your well being. Staff members that help you when you don?t have chocolate chips and you want to make cookies all the way to staff members who are willing to proof read your ?thank you? letter to the organ donors? family. A staff that is truly selfless.
How did you spend your time at the Family House?
Well, they feed us very well here ? I feel like a huge amount of time was spent eating! Other than that, we exercised and built puzzles. We were also able to commute to tourist attractions nearby.
Did you have loved ones visit you while you were/are staying at the Family House?
Yes. That is something this house has been so generous about. They let us have over 15 family members here at once. The doctors told us to bring family in, because we needed to say good-bye. The family house had no problem with us doing this.
How has your transplant experience affected your family and loved ones?
The transplant experience has given us all a greater appreciation for life. In one moment everything can be? taken away, and you have no control over that. It is best to attempt to control the things you can ? like your character. We have become a ?pay it forward? type family, because we have received more help than can? ever be repaid.
If you could give Family House a birthday present, what would it be?
It would be a video of all the people whose lives it has touched. An unscripted, unedited video. It would include the areas they are excelling in and would also have suggestions for its areas of improvement. It would include footage of the staff that goes above and beyond their job description. I would love to give it money to create more family houses, but that is something I do not have. What I do have is the capability to spread the word about this amazing place, and the ability to encourage others to become donors. In fact, we recently had a fundraiser for my mom. At it we printed out organ donation sign-up sheets. We included pre-stamped envelopes. We had several people from our community fill one out and we are now sending them in. Each person that signed those papers is an enormous victory. The community created by the Family House inspired us to encourage others. It is a community that can best be described by living in it.
What do you hope for Family House in the upcoming year?
I hope they expand. Not in physical size, but in national size. In other words, I hope more are built. I hope other cities can have access to a place like this. It is not only beneficial to the people staying there, but to the ? hospitals and community it is in. It raises social awareness. It creates a community network that becomes engaged in wanting to raise awareness for organ donation. It?s beneficial in more ways than can be explained.
How do you feel being part of the first year of Family House?
I feel very honored to have been here during the first year. The First Year of anything is often met with turmoil, and usually incorporates the phrase ?try and try again.? The first year is when things are done wrong, and when lessons are learned from these things. These things that are done ?wrong,? are the moments that often lead to success. It is the year that a team is built. It is this team that has built a home for many people. To be a part of this team ? to fall with it, to rise with it ? is something that is worthwhile and it is something that will stay with me forever.
What do you wish other people of the community knew about the Family House?
I wish people knew how much volunteers mean to them, and just how important their cause is. It is embarrassing when I admit that I knew nothing of organ donation, the Gift of Life, or this place and what it did until my mom received her double-lung and heart transplant. Being on the other side of that is frustrating, knowing the need and not being able to explain why it is so important can be exhausting. If the community knew just how much it did for it, they would never hesitate to help.
What would you like to say to the staff and volunteers who work at the Family House?
This place is a home to many, it is beautiful, but it is simply a building; made out of brick, but you are what makes it a home. You are the people that fill it with joy and happiness ? which I might add is a challenging thing to do in your profession. What you do takes a certain type of person ? most of the time the people who are your guests are going through a world of turmoil, fear, and pain and you use your character and personality to bring smiles to their faces. You are selfless. Selfless is something I? always strive to be. It is not easy. I keep writing to try to explain why you?re all wonderful, but there are never enough words to describe my gratitude. So in this I will end with a thank you. It is a phrase that encompasses all you have done, it is simple and simple is beautiful, just like all of you.
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The Clink? family is just one of the families who will be affected by organ donation and transplantation in the upcoming year. By helping us celebrate our first birthday, you have the opportunity to assure families like Samantha?s have a place to call home during their transplant experience.
Click here learn more about other families of the Family House, and how you can help them by supporting our birthday wish
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Tags: adopt-a-family-, adoption, donate life, donation, gift of life 1st birthday, Gift of Life Donor Program, gift of life family house birthday, Organ and Tissue donation, organ donation, philadelphia, transplant families
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