I just read the April 2008 Change of Heart newsletter. Change of Heart is a support group for heart transplant recipients (see link on the right to go to their website). On April 26, 1996, my father had a successful heart transplant. A self-less and loving gift to him, and to my entire family.
I am so proud of my father and how he gives back. He is Chaplain of the Heart Transplant Unit at University of Cincinnati Hospital; until only recently, he served for many years as President of Change of Heart; he is very involved with patients waiting for heart transplants by supporting and counseling them, & their families, as well as recipients; he assists in fundraising and obtaining sponsors for Change of Heart; and is an advocate for waiting patients and recipients to the transplant unit. People reach out to him from all over the US for his counsel.
I am also so very proud of my mother who supports my father, is extremely active in my father's servicing of others, and is also very active in supporting patients, recipients, and their families. It takes a very special, and very strong, person to walk the transplant and recipient journey with someone. My mother is an angel.
Dad was asked to write his profile and it was shared in the newsletter. In honor of his 'birthday', I'd like to share it with you...
"On August 4, 1933, I became the sixth son of Dolphus and Hazel Dunigan Burke who lived in a small coal mining town at the head of Cabin Creek called Wevaco, WV, about 30 miles south of Charleston, WV. It was one of the worst years of The Great Depression. My mother said I was her five dollar baby, two for doctor and three for material to make diapers for me.
Mom and Dad later had four more children for a total of eight boys and two girls. In 1944, my parents bought a 164 acre farm in Southern Ohio near Athens, OH. In September of that year, we moved there and I later learned that the reason they bought the farm was that they did not want any of their children working in the coal mines.
It was after we moved to Ohio that I met a remarkable man and neighbor, John Sheppard, who was 79 years of age. As I remember the story, his parents left the Athens, OH area and headed west. John become an orphan on the Oregon Trail, and was put in an orphanage in Oregon. As a young teenager, he ran away and rode a bicycle from Oregon back to Ohio. The bike was the kind that had a very large front wheel and a small rear wheel.
Later, John went to Alaska to dig gold around Dawson Creek in the Yukon Territory. I later found John listed in the "1896-1899 Family Chronicle -- Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush Participants." John returned to Ohio a wealthy man. He married, bought large farms and planted an apple orchard. (I include John in this profile because he played such a great role in my life as a young boy and as a teenager.)
From the year 1944 til 1952, I worked for John as a neighbor along side of grown man who were being paid. However, I was never paid for my efforts. I would complain to Mom and Dad, but their answer was always "Son, we are John's neighbor and neighbors help one another." Dad would then add, "it will come back to you."
In spring of 1951, I was driving John to the city of Athens when he asked me if I'd like to have 75 acres of brush. I told him yes I would, but he knew I didn't have any money to purchase the land. John then slapped me on the leg and said, "Son, it's yours. Don't tell anyone except your Mom and Dad." I then remembered what Dad had said -- "it will come back to you." Little did I know what John had planned for me the last six years. On the day of title transfer I was working for John without pay.
As I write this, I am sitting in my cabin looking out across the deck into the woods. I come here to relax, write, meditate, hunt, and visit family and friends. My family and I built this five room cabin in 1974 and it is setting on the above mentioned 75 acres.
I came to Cincinnati in 1952, went to work for Procter & Gamble, and enlisted in the Navy in 1953. After basic training and two different aviation schools, I was assigned to an Experimental Squadron VX3 in New Jersey, just outside Atlantic City. While there in 1955, I had the privilege of flying in the right seat of an AD5 plane and on a return trip from Rhode Island, the pilot asked if I'd like to have some fun. I said I would.
Well, we flew around the Empire State Building three times. I could see people standing at the windows. At the time, the pilot and I did not know that in 1945 a B-52 Bomber had crashed into the Empire State Building killing several people and caused a lot of damage to the building.
Little did I know that a year later I would be flying in the B-52 Bomber (this is the plane that Jimmy Doolittle flew to invade Japan at the beginning of WWII). Some of our pilots were enlisted men as well. This was after the Korean War and there was a shortage of pilots and flight crews. I was discharged in March, 1957. I returned to work for P&G.
I met Rosemary in 1959 and we were married on July 2, 1960. God blessed us with five children -- four boys and a girl.
In 1969, Rosemary and I went to visit my brother, Hebron, and his wife, Maxine, and their family. Hebron and I went fishing. Maxine took Rosemary and the kids shopping. They shopped in antique shops and Maxine got Rosemary interested in antiques. When I returned and we came back to Cincinnati, Rosemary made me take her to some antique shops. So, I too, came down with the "fever"!
As I tend to do, I went "all the way" into it. I went to auctioneer school in Indiana after working all day at P&G. After getting my license, we started conducting auctions, mostly antique. It was a family business. After my health began to fail, I slowed down on the auctioneering part. It was a lot of physical work. Today I still buy and sell antiques and collect some.
After my parents passed, I became interested in stories they had told me about our ancestors. I have traced my ancestors back to the colonies of Virginia and Maryland, and to the countries of Ireland and England. I have printed a genealogy book about the Burke, Dunigan and Marcum families.
Rosemary and I have made several trips to Virginia, Kentucky and other places searching cemeteries, court houses, and libraries for information. I now have 16 chapters written in a book about my family, which started before my heart transplant. I hope to finish it this year at my cabin, while supervising timber cutting of my 75 acres.
I lost my father, mother, and three brothers to heart problems. I began having heart problems in my mid-forties. On April 26, 1996, I was blessed with a heart from a donor from Columbus, Ohio. Rosemary and I attended our first Change of Heart meeting in 1996, and I began serving as chaplain. I served as President for five years, and Rosemary has been serving as Treasurer for the last nine years.
Remember to do good for others for "it will come back to you." God is good, all the time."
~ written by Charles Donald Burke
