IN 2020, less than 6,000 people across the United States became living organ donors, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Lebanon is proud to be home to one of those brave donors: wife, mother, and flower shop owner Tracy Underwood. It was a process that took years to get through, and life did its best to get in the way. But the end result was a life and a family changed forever.
A.J.’s Flowers & Gifts has been a part of life in Lebanon for the past 15 years, run by Underwood and her mother, Marcia Pruitte. Every day for 10 of those years, Underwood bought new flowers from one man — Dean Gentry with Flowers Direct in Cookeville. The result was a close friendship between each of their families.
“I talked to him every day on the phone — I tell him what kind of flowers I need, and then he would have them transported to my flower shop locally,” Underwood said. “So my family has had dinner with his before. In over 10 years, you become friends — pretty good friends — with somebody.”
Then, one day, Gentry became very sick. He was so sick, in fact, that his kidneys began shutting down, and he had to go on dialysis. At the time, he had four children, Underwood said — one just a toddler. With some 100,000 people on the donor list, the chance of getting a match was slim. Even if Gentry had his family tested to be a living donor, there was a low chance that someone would be a match.
“I had told them from the get-go, I was like, ‘You know I would be tested for you. I would have peace at doing that,’” Underwood said. “The more I prayed, I mean, I just had complete peace. I had no fear in doing it.”
As she was both female and not a family member, Underwood was told there was a very slim chance of being a match. Still, she felt like this was the path God was calling her to, so she continued the testing process. Her persistence paid off.
“I was picking up my son, Evyn, at school one day, out sitting in the car rider line, and the phone rang, and it said ‘Saint Thomas West Kidney Donation Center.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, here we go,’ and I answered it, and the lady’s already crying,” Underwood said. “She said, ‘This is so-and-so from the kidney center. We have your results back,’ … and, she said, ‘You’re a match.’”
Not only was she a match, but Underwood was the needle in a haystack — a 100% match. The process was by no means completed, however. Underwood had to go through a full checkup — head to toe, heart, kidneys, everything — to ensure she was in full health. It was all going well, everything falling into place, when Underwood got some bad news. Her husband had cancer.
“We had to put things on hold,” Underwood said. “I can’t lay my life on the table not knowing if my husband’s going to be okay because we have three children.”
It was a hard decision for both families, but they put off the surgery until Underwood’s husband was declared cancer-free in February 2020. Not one month later, the country shut down because of COVID-19, with the transplant center only performing life-threatening transplants. Throughout it all, Underwood had complete faith that things would work out.
“When you go through something like that … sometimes you second guess, ‘Am I supposed to be doing this?’ And I never had that inkling at all,” Underwood said. “I had complete peace in what I was doing.”
Finally, in July, they were able to have the full transplant — an over 9-hour surgery. It was a complete success. Gentry has three kidneys now, and Underwood has one, but both families are happy, healthy, and living their best lives.
“[Gentry] is great — 100% back at work, no dialysis, able to do activities with his children, [and] travel,” Underwood said. “The only thing I have to be really careful [of] is [that] there’s certain medications I can’t take that would damage the one kidney. If I’m out — if I’m running or exercising or I’m just out in the heat — I have to hydrate really well. That’s really my only biggest thing. I have to take care of my body.”
There are always risks, Underwood said, but with faith and prayer, people can get through a lot of things that may seem too hard to overcome. Who knows? Perhaps someone’s life may be changed in the process. GN
