This week Anguillians and others at Wallblake Airport stared in fascination as a young woman, with a full life of many productive years ahead of her and a bright career to her credit, told of how she freely donated one of her kidneys to Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming that he might live.

The Anguillian saw tears running down the cheeks of one person who, with bowed head, listened absorbingly as Ineke Williams, Mr. Fleming’s 42-year-old first cousin, a Registered Dialysis Nurse at the St. Maarten Medical Center, related her touching story. Another person, overcome by emotion, shook his head and looked away.

It was a story of sacrificial love which only Ineke, who took that daring step, can fully understand and speak about. If we were to paraphrase what Jesus said about such love, one may say in her case: Greater love hath no woman than this that a woman lays down her life for her cousin.

A kidney transplant is extremely difficult for anyone to obtain, one reason being that in the first place there must be a suitable donor with a matching organ; the receiver, like the donor, must be in good health otherwise; and some times the organ becomes available only under certain extraordinary circumstances. Ineke took a personal decision that many of us, concerned about our own welfare and existence, would have shied away from.

There is a lesson in all of this for everyone. It is a high price to consider in giving away one of two vital organs and may be a risky exercise, but sacrificial love and faith in the Almighty hardly knows any limit as to the extent to which someone may go in helping another person. It does not have to be something as precious as a kidney, but there is some good thing that each of us can do for the humankind - to give help where there is need; relief where there is burden; and hope where there is despair.

In Ineke’s case she provided assistance where there was pain, uncertainty and huge financial strain by the use of a dialysis machine; no cure and a threat of death looming over the Chief Minister. In essence she became not just a kidney donor but by extension a “life-saver.”

May her bravery and sacrificial love be a catalyst to motivate us to do even the simplest act of kindness that can help to spread joy and hope into the lives of our fellowmen. Be ye kind to one another and Do unto others as you would have them do unto you are remarkable and soul-searching entreaties to follow.

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