February 14, 2021 – Valentine’s Day | Organ Donor Day

Have You Heard About The Couple Who Met In The Operating Room?

Welcome to February 14th, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate matching hearts and birds of a feather.

Heather Krueger, who lived in a small town near Chicago, was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer at only 24 years of age.  To survive, she needed a liver transplant, and when no one in her family proved to be a match, her situation became critical. Chris Dempsey, a former Marine, volunteered to be Heather’s donor.  Although they had never met Chris believed strongly that, “Marine’s never run away from anything.”  He became Heather’s salvation when he underwent transplant surgery, donating 55 percent of his liver.  And during recovery, Chris and Heather finally got to know each other.  They eventually dated, fell in love and married in October of 2016. On National Organ Donor Day we celebrate the matches that are made in heaven and in the OR. 

In case you didn’t know, there was an actual St. Valentine. He was a bishop who was martyred by the Romans for presiding over Christian marriages. But the romantic holiday was invented by Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 14th Century. In his poem Parliament of Fowls, he tells the tale of a group of birds who come together each Valentine’s Day to find a mate. Three male eagles compete with one another to see which can claim a female’s love. This popularized the idea of the holiday being about love and romance. And the tradition lives on to this day. Spoiler alert, in the poem, none of the eagles gets the girl, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t found your true love just yet. Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the one you love, even if it’s yourself. After all, this love thing can really be for the birds. 

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson.  Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.


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