Connect
← Return to Every day is a good day: Meet @scottij
Newsfeed PostNewsfeed Post in blog About Connect: Who, What & Why
Every day is a good day: Meet @scottij Dec 4, 2023 | By Rosemary, Volunteer Mentor (@rosemarya)Comment receiving replies
Dana,
There is a small chance your donor family has not received your letters. As you know, you send your letters to the social workers at Mayo and they forward them on to the respective donor network. Then the donor network is supposed to forward them to the family. In my situation, Covid was in full swing at my first letter, June of 2020. The respective donor network for me (I will keep that private as I do not want to cast aspersions) was working remote, had moved offices, lost personnel and generally failed to do their part. When confronted by the social workers after I began my inquiry on validity of my donor and causes for the delay they were defensive and claimed they never received letters. Subsequently they "found" three of the five letters. No apologies to me nor my donor family but we are not interested in such. We are just glad we have found each other.
Now a caution, my friend. You do know that the response rate is low. the last I heard that was while the heart is highest of solid organ transplant responses from donor families it is still only 12%.
Out of interest, how often do you write your letters?
Best always,
s!
Replies to "@danab Dana, There is a small chance your donor family has not received your letters. As..."
Im in my 6th year and have written 2 the first about 8 months post and the second about a year later. Based on what you said I will start writing more often.
I was concerned maybe they were not ready so I would wait a bit. Iver heard its about 5 years to traditionally mourn over a loved one. I myself lost a daughter 4 years ago but for me I would have written back with no issues. She was unable to be a donor . But I includded that in the second letter in hopes to build a bond with the family. So Hard to know what to write sometimes.
Connect
Scott, @danab -I wrote to my donor family and I received a letter from them. But before I received it, the donor network notified me and asked whether I wanted to receive the letter. I was told that the donor family gets the same option of whether or not to accept the letter. This is because of the many deeply sensitive issues that accompany the sudden loss of a loved one when the family is still grieving. I also learned that addresses change often and the donor network is not able to reach them.