Jon had many health problems throughout his life starting when he was a baby. He had many surgeries including a kidney transplant, had many times in the hospital and did dialysis for a year and a half in his 30’s. But despite it all, he had a wonderful life.

Jon was a true Minnesota, Twin Cities guy. He was born and raised in Mpls. He lived his adult years in the northern suburbs. He was a huge Minnesota sports fan, cheered his beloved Twins on to 2 World Series titles, fiercely supported his Minnesota Vikings, ever hoping for that elusive Superbowl win and was saddened when his North Stars moved to Dallas.

Jon and I became friends as teenagers, were a couple for over 38 years and married for over 31 years. Jon was a very caring and protective husband to me, ever watchful for any harm that could come my way. Jon and I did everything together as a team. Everyday things like shopping, cooking, chores and exciting things like trips to see the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, Graceland, the Statue of Liberty, the Las Vegas strip, Niagara Falls and the Football Hall of Fame. Name any rock group from the 80’s and 90’s and we had probably seen them in concert at least once. Jon and I did the annual Humane Society Walk for Animals for over 30 years, raising thousands of dollars to help the animals. We also volunteered for the National Kidney Foundation.

Jon doted on his nieces and nephews. They have wonderful memories of him taking them to baseball games, Valleyfair, picnics and to see Santa Claus. He even played Santa Claus years ago for the older nieces and nephew.

Jon loved animals. Over the years, we had 3 cats, they were his “little buddies” each in their own way.

Jon worked most of his years in the document management field, first microfilming documents and then as technology advanced scanning documents. He worked a short time in the early 90’s at Zubaz (yes, the striped pants company) and what he loved about that time was he got to get discounted Zubaz’s for the family and meet some famous athletes.

Jon loved to bake sweets for family and friends. Jon took culinary arts classes and won many ribbons for his cakes, cookies and bars at the County fair and State fair.

Jon loved to do trivia and play games, especially the card game 500. Some of Jon’s superpowers included being the human calculator (able to add numbers quickly in his head) and being able to identify the make/model/year of any 1970’s muscle car simply by looking at the head and taillights.

Friends and family remember Jon’s quick wit.

Jon was ever grateful for the kidney transplant he received in May 1999 from a deceased donor. Jon always wanted to repay this gift in some way. Sadly, Jon passed away suddenly in the spring of 2022. Jon was a donor on his driver’s license and things came full circle and Jon became the donor instead of the recipient. We are told that by donating his corneas he was able to give the gift of sight to 2 people. Our hope is with Jon’s gift that they are now able to see a beautiful sunset and see the faces of those they love.

May 13, 2014 at 6:55 PM I was healthy. (Doctors would later say that they could have subjected me to all known cardiac tests the day before and I would have passed with flying colors.) At 7:00 PM, friends were calling an ambulance.

Unbeknownst to me, some of my arteries were affected by a genetic condition which caused a spontaneous coronary arterial dissection (SCAD) within the artery feeding my heart oxygen. The result was a list of complications too numerous to list here but that include ECMO, coma, the brainwaves of a drunken tree frog, heart pump, toes amputated, thyroid cancer surgery, removal of an adrenal gland, brain bleed, heart transplant, spleen bleed, etc…). Twice I’d have to rehab in order to walk, do stairs, get independent.

My heart was supported by an LVAD for the first year after my heart attack. It was almost exactly 1 year from the LVAD install when they called me in to receive my heart. Receiving that phone call is very surreal. An LVAD is intended to be a “bridge” device and not the long term solution. I had recovered to the point of working part-time and golfing with buddies — even though doctors restricted me to my 8 iron or less : ). Getting that phone call about the transplant meant starting my recovery all over again but ultimately getting the chance to recover more fully.

Through out most of my adult life I donated blood and have been signed up as an organ donor because of my upbringing. It seemed an arbitrary thing – after all, the life you save isn’t sitting next to you. But as the recipient of a heart, the significance of that choice becomes much more real. I have the greatest sympathy and gratitude to the donor’s family for making this choice.

I waited four months in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit for the right heart. While there, i decided to make the most of my time by considering my stay as a Sabbatical. i learned to Knit, took a Painting lesson and tried to re-learn my High School French.

I made an effort to get to know my caregivers and the hospital staff. I learned a few words in Tibetan as there were many staff from Tibet and/or India. Their eyes would light up when i greeted them in Tibetan.

My days were filled to the brim with tests to take, physical therapy, exercise and other things to do. Evenings were spent watching Movies or TV series. Usually I went to bed exhausted and slept like a baby.

I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2012 at the age of 27. In August of 2016 I was admitted into the ICU at Abbott Northwestern and placed on the waiting list for a heart transplant. During my stay I had an LVAD (heart pump) put in to allow me to to stay healthy enough until a heart was found. Once the Lvad was put in I could wait on the telemetry side of the hospital and have a bit more freedom. Although I was in the hospital and knew the seriousness of my situation and even with the setbacks that happened while I was there, the entire staff from the doctors to the nurses and coordinators and on down to the housekeeping staff, they were some of the big reasons to stay positive and made the wait more pleasant. On December 10th at five in the morning one of my doctors came to my room to inform me that a heart had been found.

Several days after the transplant as I was being moved from ICU to the telemetry unit, things really sank in when my doctor told me I was no longer a heart failure patient. Although still to this day a specific cause for my heart failure has never been determined, I am for ever thankful to my Donor for the heroic decision to become an organ donor

Bob was born with faulty heart valves but you never would have known that based on how he lived his life. He was a great athlete at Washburn High School in Minneapolis, making All City in football and Honorable Mention – All State. Throughout his life, he played singles tennis with what some would call “reckless abandon”. Later in life he became a biker and a runner. But at age 44 he started having premature ventricular contractions – his heart was beating wildly and out of control. It was enlarged after years of pumping and pumping to get blood flowing to his body only to have it leak back into his heart through those faulty valves. He had to have emergency surgery where they replaced two of his heart valves with mechanical valves. The hope was that his heart would diminish in size if it didn’t have to work so hard. I mean, that’s what happens to our abs if we quit doing sit-ups, right? Ha! Not so much with Bob’s heart. After a couple of years of feeling “normal”, Bob started noticing he was more fatigued. He could no longer run for exercise, just walk. He was a little winded walking a flight of stairs. His cardiologist said it was time to put him on the heart transplant list because it could take 2 years to get a heart. Two years!! Being the loving wife, I wanted to do something to help . . . so I began volunteering at LifeSource. I went out to different groups and told Bob’s story in hopes that more people would put donor on their driver’s license.

Fast forward two years – through months of less energy, more naps but still no heart. Then Bob experienced an episode of heart failure which landed him in the cardiac ICU at Abbott Northwestern. His cardiologist decided he needed to stay there until a heart was found. This put him at the top of the list, so we figured the heart would become available any moment. But moments turned to days which turned into weeks. On Saturday mornings I would bring our 2 year old pup to the hospital for a visit – he missed his “dad” and Bob missed Jack. On Saturday nights I would bring take out pasta and a VCR movie and we’d have date night. We spent our 5th wedding anniversary in the ICU – the nurses put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door to his room. I’m not sure what they thought was going to happen in there – Bob was hooked up to all kinds of cardiac telemetry that they were watching at the nurse’s station. Any change in his heart rhythm and they would have been through that door in a flash!

While waiting, Bob didn’t want to lose muscle by lying in bed all day. He counted the 1 foot tiles on the floor of a big circle hallway and calculated how many of them made a mile. Then he pushed his IV pole along his mile long circular course twice a day to stay as active as possible. He had one false start while there – a heart became available and I got the call at home – but by the time I got to the hospital and Bob had started the surgery prep, they decided it wasn’t the right heart for him. He also experienced the death of someone who had become a friend as they both waited in the ICU for a heart. His friend got her heart, but then experienced an episode of massive rejection and died before she was able to go home.

After two years of waiting at home and 89 days in the cardiac ICU, Bob got his heart on November 3, 1998. He woke up in recovery to find out that Jesse Ventura was our new governor. He thought he was still under anesthesia . . . he kept asking me if it could be true!

We are forever grateful to Bob’s donor, Stephen. We met his 5 sisters and his parents and stay in touch – mostly to let them know that Bob is taking good care of Stephen’s heart. It has been nearly 17 years and Bob continues to passionately live life with his new heart. He participated in the Transplant Olympics that were held here in Minnesota, bringing home a bronze medal in tennis. Now that he has retired he is an AVID Pickleball player – he plays 4-5 mornings a week and has participated in many tournaments. We both work hard to make the LifeSource Golf Classic in Memory of Terri Opp a success each year. Ironically, Terri was a young woman who died 19 years ago at the young age of 26 while waiting for a heart transplant that never came. The money raised by the golf tournament is used by the LifeSource Public Affairs department to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation. Our hope is that soon we can say that donor designation is at 100% and no one has to wait for the life-saving gift that Stephen so generously gave Bob.