Simone Harty was sleeping in the early morning of June 13, 2007, when police came to her North Burnaby home asking questions about her son.
Is this where Elliott Harty lives? Does he own a motorcycle? Where is he?
Simone thought her 17-year-old boy was asleep in bed, when police asked to see his motorcycle.
"I was horrified when I saw the bike wasn't there," she says. "It was complete disbelief, that they must have had the wrong person."
Her son, Elliott, who had been out with friends and drinking earlier that night, had returned home and quietly slipped out again around midnight on his new motorbike.
No one saw the accident, but shortly after Elliott left, a motorist called police to report that a lamppost was blocking Barnet Highway. When police responded, they found Elliott in a ditch. He was rushed to Royal Columbian in critical condition. Simone, a single mom, was at his bedside - praying, talking to her only child and watching his vital signs - but hours or surgery could not repair the boy's broken body.
"It wasn't till the next day that the neurologist came to speak to us," she says in a soft, quivering voice. "He was saying to us that there was no brain activity and that really there was no more they could do."
Then came a conversation about whether Simone would like to "make the gift of life" and donate her child's organs. Simone had never spoken with Elliott about organ donation, but she thought it's what he would have wanted.
Burnaby North Secondary students huddled together in the hospital's hallways for a chance to say goodbye to the tall, gangly fun-loving teen, who played piano and loved cooking curry.
Elliott's kidney and liver were saved, as were some islet cells from his pancreas, which can help people with diabetes.
Five years later, Simone is still raw with grief, but she smiles and remembers her son fondly, as she flips through an album of mementos. There are several newspaper clippings from the accident, photos of a Elliott, and an anonymous, hand-written letter on yellow paper from one of the recipients of Elliott's organ donation. The writer is thankful after suffering through 10 years of kidney disease.
"I will cherish and take care of my new kidney and treat it like my baby and part of my body," the letter says.
"What's hard for me is I don't know much about this person," Simone says.
In Canada, there's a wall of anonymity between families of organ donors and recipients, and Simone knows nothing of the person who now carries Elliott's kidney. "But I do know it's a hard letter to write," she says. "I understand the complications of receiving a gift like that."
Simone has done a lot in the wake of losing her child. She's shared her story publicly and encouraged people to become organ donors, and she's joined a dragon boating team of transplant recipients and paddled alongside Eva Markvoort, the young, vibrant New Westminster woman who passed away after a double lung transplant. She also attends a support group for parents who have lost their children and has made many new friends since Elliott's death.
On Sunday, April 1, Simone will be one of more than 150 participants in a "transplant trot" at Burnaby Lake Park benefitting the Canadian Transplant Association. Organizers behind the run are raising awareness about organ donation in hopes more people will register. The trek starts at 10 a.m., and participants can run or walk five kilometres or eight. Registration is $20, and transplant recipients register for free. Simone will be there for Elliott.
"I'm just a person who will run. I will run with my son's button in his honour," she says.
Simone had spoken to her son about drugs, teen pregnancy and jail, but never organ donation.
"I think it's important to have those conversations, but I'm sure I made the choice he would have made," she says. "It's one of those important conversation parents need to have with their children."
Simone hopes people register as organ donors and have these conversations - not beside deathbeds, but as part of everyday life. Simone is also hopeful others will receive that bittersweet "gift of life."
"I didn't realize the degree in which a gift like this can change someone's life, from being sick to not being sick," she says. "If something good can come out of a tragedy like this, then it's a gift I'm happy I was able to give other people, and I know my son would feel the same."
To sign up for the run, go to www. http: //bit.ly/TransplantTrot or call Margaret Benson at 604-985-6628 or email [email protected]. To become an organ donor, go to transplant.bc.ca.
