“Josie was very active and going to the gym. She would get up at 6 a.m. and work out before going to college,” said her mother, Renee Kaylor, explaining that on Tuesdays Josie and her friends would hold sleepovers at each others homes. “That Tuesday, she stayed at a friend’s grandmother’s house; she got up as usual and went to the gym. Somehow she rolled her car; she was killed instantly.”
In a way, however, Josie did prepare for the unexpected: at the age of 16, she signed an organ donor card. After the accident, Josie’s corneas went to two women, heart tissue went to a 4-year-old girl and her bone tissue was used to create over 400 bone grafts.
“I never knew much about donation,” said Kaylor. “That’s just something that you don’t learn about if it doesn’t affect your family. We didn’t realize the impact it can have on families. Even though we no longer have Josie, we’ve been able to take comfort in knowing how it would have made her feel knowing she was able to help someone else. The blessing we have is knowing she was able to help so many people.”
Kaylor now focuses her efforts on raising awareness about organ donation. She has spoken to students at East Knox and Danville about organ donation and distracted driving and is exploring going into the classroom when school starts. A nursing scholarship through the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County, a Facebook memorial page and a walking/running group, Joggers for Josie, are other ways Kaylor raises awareness.
“We ask [scholarship candidates] to write an essay on organ donation just to get the awareness out there among the young people,” said Kaylor. “The memorial page has over 5,000 viewers; if we touch them, 5,000 people know how they can help someone some day.
“Close to 70 people walked or ran for Josie [at Dash for Donation] to raise awareness,” she continued. “So many people told us they never knew what it was about until they got there and saw people walking and people in wheelchairs who were recipients of organs. It’s about recipients, it’s about people waiting; it’s such an eye-opener. We have to get the information that people don’t understand out there.”
The pain of losing her daughter is evident when Kaylor speaks about Josie, but there is an underlying strength there, too.
“If I can use what we went through to teach people, then I guess that’s what God wants us to do,” she said. “I think of the gift someone might be able to give to one of my grandchildren some day. I have to think, ‘what if they are waiting?’ I never realized how many people are waiting to get that help.”
Statistics provided by Lifeline of Ohio are sobering. More than 121,000 people nationwide await an organ transplant. Closer to home, once every 48 hours an Ohioan dies while awaiting a transplant; 3,482 are on the wait list.
“Josie loved life; she loved living and was vibrant and energetic,” said Kaylor. “She would like to know those women who get to see their grandchild for the first time or see who they’re married to for the first time. So many people know Josie, and they are listening. We have to be aware of how we can help others; that’s how she was. I know God will give her a new body, a perfect body. She didn’t need those organs anymore. What better way to use them than to help someone still here?”
To learn more about the need for organ donation and how to become an organ donor, visit www.lifelineofohio.org.
