He Knew: A Living Kidney Donor’S Journey

By Ethel F. Mize

Milton and Johnny first met when they began sixth grade at Clifton Park Elementary School in Fort Hood, Texas. The two teamed up to cause all sorts of mischief. They cultivated a friendship that endured through college and marriageMilton to Ethel and Johnny to Kimand into adulthood. The couples spent time together and enjoyed each others company.

When Johnnys health started to fail, and he learned he needed a kidney transplant, Ethel relied on her strong faith and began to pray for this close family friend. She felt the call to be tested as a candidate for a living donor transplant and discovered she was a match.

In He Knew, author Ethel F. Mize shares her story and how God played a role in helping her to save Johnnys life. She offers a look at her lifes journey and what led to her decision. She narrates the medical experience of the actual donation, and she encourages others to consider giving the gift of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973620662

Ethel F. Mize

Ethel F. Mize is retired after thirty-one years in the education field. She lives in central Texas and has been married for thirty-three years. Mize has three adult children and two grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2018 Ethel F. Mize.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-2071-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2066-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018902106

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/20/2018

CONTENTS

Foreword

Chapter 1 In the Beginning

Chapter 2 I Enter the Scene

Chapter 3 The Transplant

Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to my husband. Thank you for your support through the transplant and the writing of this book. Love you to the moon and back!!!!

I always believed God plays a part in our lives—whether we believe in Him or not. This story begins way back when two young boys met in sixth grade. Years later, that meeting saved one of their lives, and God’s hand played a role in all of it.

FOREWORD

T he day that I met Ethel Mize changed both our lives, and began a friendship that lasts to this day. On that Sunday, Ethel’s youngest daughter was baptized at the Trinity Baptist Church of Harker Heights, Texas. At the end of that service, Trinity Baptist Church invited me to serve as its pastor.

That Ethel would donate a kidney to a friend did not surprise me. Nor did the fact that her Christian faith motivated her to do so shock me. Some people talk about how much being a Christian means to them. Ethel is of a different ilk, choosing instead to let her actions reveal what God means to her. As she mentions, she has been in active service at Trinity. That her confidence in God would compel her to share a kidney with a friend shows the depths of her love for God and for people.

Only Ethel can know what thoughts and feelings led her to offer a part of physical self to save a dying friend. But therein lies