Shortly after Damar Hamlin was seriously injured in a football game between his team, the Buffalo Bills, and the Cincinnati Bengals, I had a letter about him published in the Enterprise-Journal.
This is the next-to-last sentence I wrote about Damar: “It isn’t hard to see that Damar had the right folks leading him down the right path in his life, and is living his life today in a way that would make God proud.”
The last sentence of the letter reads like this: “The way he lives his life truly tells you all you need to know about him.”
All of this is leading up to something else. There was an Associated Press article in the Feb. 11 Enterprise-Journal about two very special friends. They were so close that one gave the ultimate gift to the other.
These two men are John Gladwell and Billy Welsh, and they were Marine buddies back in the 2000s.
When Welsh made an online post in 2019 saying that he had been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, and asking if anyone was willing to become an organ donor, Gladwell responded and soon learned he was a 99% match.
Gladwell eventually flew from Kansas City to Philadelphia, where the 10-hour surgical procedure was performed, transplanting one of his kidneys to Welsh.
What I wrote about Damar Hamlin earlier was in reference to all of the good deeds he has done, which I am sure are many — probably some we don’t even know about.
Then when I read the article about the two former Marines, it reminded me so much of Damar. I’m sure that as Damar had the right leadership in his life, so did John Gladwell.
I have no doubt he is acquainted with God. I say that because of two very popular verses in the Bible: “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and “Do unto others as you would have them to unto you.”
Undoubtedly, those two verses meant a lot to John Gladwell, and he acted on them.
I don’t know much about medical matters, but I would just imagine that with something as serious as a kidney transplant, no one, not even the surgeons, knows how things are going to turn out.
But did this stop John? Absolutely not. And we have to wonder what might have happened to Billy if not for John.
These two were rivals in the Super Bowl. John is a Kansas City Chiefs fan and Billy is a Philadelphia Eagles fan. But they will forever be united by that ultimate gift told in this story, and all because of one friend’s love for another.
So it seems that not only could we take lessons from Damar Hamlin, but also from a true and loving friend by the name of John Gladwell.
— Debbie Touchstone, Jayess
