A story that should be celebrated
What a night in Houston
The Front Page
Morning Update
Monday, July 12, 2021
By Ken Tingley
I stumbled on the post as you so often do while wandering through social media. It was written by Ken Powers, a man I have met just a couple times, but who I regularly think about.
Here is what he wrote:
“Today is the 13th Liver Transplantiversary for myself and my heroic donor, Tom Casey. A truer hero, with a larger heart, you will never meet. We were on and in the news, yet no one could ever give this guy the accounting which he truly deserves. I take the greatest solace knowing that God will. I love you, my brother.”
Ken Powers almost wasted his life, but Tom Casey saved it anyway.
That took me back 13 years to when I wrote their story, how it happened and how a chance meeting changed a life.
Here is how I started that column on June 29, 2008 in The Post-Star:
It starts with a simple conversation.
That's the odd thing about this story. Two acquaintances, literally bumping into each other between two aisles of canned goods, catching up with each other on the vagaries of everyday life, shooting the breeze, passing the time … and soon they are talking life and death.
Ken Powers needs a new liver
He wrecked his with a youth filled with too much booze and no control. He is 38 now, and has since righted the ship, established a lifestyle worthy of a new liver to fight the toxins that today sap him of energy and strength.
Out of the blue, the other man, Tom Casey, asks what it takes to get a new liver. Right there in the market. He's still not sure why he asked.
Powers tells him the donor has to have a healthy liver. He tells him that the blood types have to match. And he tells him the two people have to be about the same size.
That's the lightning bolt, according to Casey.
This is the part where Casey still pauses, unsure of how to explain what happened next.
"I don't ever put a lot into stuff like this, but when I heard him say, 'You have to be about my size,' there was instant goose bumps," said Casey. "I didn't say a word to him, but all I could think about was 'Jeez Ken, I'm about your size.' "
For days afterward, those words echoed in his head, tormented him, overwhelmed him until he finally went to his doctor for a blood test.
O negative, the same as Ken Powers.
That was two years ago and Casey says it was that moment that preordained that in nine days he will give 65 percent of his healthy liver to Ken Powers because "he is about the same size."
There is a lot more.
That’s the value of column writing in small community newspapers. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about in recent weeks after being asked why I wrote the book “The Last American Editor,” a collection of columns that celebrates the life and people in small towns.
The story of Ken Powers meeting Tom Casey in the supermarket is in the book, along with an early column about Powers’ drinking and recovery while trying to help avoid the pitfalls of drinking and drugs.
The thing is that newspaper stories are “of the moment.” They don’t last very long and I felt these stories, of these moments in small town life should be preserved and that what Tom Casey did for Ken Powers should be preserved.
It is good story that will make you feel good.
There are plenty of others just like it.
Happy anniversary Tom and Ken. Thanks for letting me tell your story.
Minute Maid experience
I chalked off my 24th big-league ballpark Friday night with a visit to Minute Maid Park in Houston where the Yankees were booed relentlessly, but prevailed, nevertheless, 4-0.
The domed ballpark with the retractable roof is a marvel with a small locomotive running across the left field wall to celebrate Astros’ rallies.
Behind the train tracks is a glass wall that allows you to see the downtown Houston skyline. We lamented we did not get to see the game with the roof open, but after the final out, we learned there were “Friday Night Fireworks” and they “popped the top on the dome.”
It was an awesome way to end a great day.
