Thursday, November 23, 2000

Giving thanks for the gift of life

Paul Iverson/Caller-Times

Russell Renzi (left) and his fiancee, Michele Krakowski, traveled from Rhode Island to meet Renzi’s hero, Ernest Salazar, whose marrow donation saved Renzi’s life. The New Englanders will be godparents to Ernest and Elida Salazar’s daughter, Sara Gracie.

As a firefighter, Russell Renzi of Rhode Island often heard others use the word "hero" to describe him. But the New Englander says it wasn't until two years ago that he learned the true meaning of the word, when he found a hero of his own, a Corpus Christi man he had never met.
   At the time, Renzi was fighting the battle of his life. Every blaze he had risked on the job paled in comparison to what he first thought was the flu but turned out to be acute leukemia, a cancer of the blood that progresses rapidly and can lead to death within months.
   He turned to doctors and modern medicine, and found his only hope hinging on a stranger, Ernest Salazar, a postal service letter carrier whose bone marrow held the promise of a life-saving match.
   In June 1998, Salazar, accompanied by his wife, Elida, checked into a blood and tissue center in San Antonio, where his bone marrow was harvested and flown to Renzi at a Boston hospital.

Blood, marrow drive The Community Blood Bank will hold a blood and bone marrow drive from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at Holy Family Catholic Church, 3157 MacArthur St.

   Two years later, with his leukemia in remission, Renzi and his fiancee, Michele Krakowski, are in town this week, finally meeting the man they now call Renzi's blood brother.
   "It's my way of expressing my ultimate gratitude to someone who stepped forward and gave me a chance to still be here," said Renzi, 41, who retired from firefighting in August.
   "I don't know of anything greater that someone can do for someone else."
   For the Salazars, Renzi's visit is an opportunity to more adequately express sentiments that until now had been shared only in correspondence or long-distance phone calls.
   "We've never met them before this, yet we have so much love for them," said Elida Salazar, fingering the gold charm that Krakowski mailed to Ernest Salazar a year after the transplant.
   The charm, which Krakowski had a jeweler shape in the form of a lifesaver, is made from pieces of her late mother's jewelry she had melted specifically for the thank-you gift.
   The lifesaver sparkles with two tiny diamonds.
   "I told Russell that he was the hero in all this because he had to go through a lot more, all that pain and suffering," Ernest Salazar said. "I'm just glad I was a match for Russell. I know we'll never be the same again. To share that gift of life makes you look at everything differently.
   "If my daughter gets anything from me, I hope it's this - to help other people when you're given an opportunity to do so."
   On Sunday, the couples' bond will grow stronger, this time not by blood, but by water.
   During Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church, Renzi and his fianc‚e will stand before the altar holding in their arms the Salazars' first-born child, 6-month-old Sara Gracie, and pledge their commitment to be her godparents.
   "I've never been a godparent before," Renzi said. "When they asked, it really caught me by surprise. But we're very honored we've been chosen. And I think this is all so fitting. Just as it's a new beginning for their baby, it's sort of a new beginning for me, too.
   "I used to be a big planner, was very efficient, analytical, planning my day, career, lifestyle moves, retirement planning, you name it.
   "Now I don't do that much anymore. I go one day at a time and appreciate every day."
   And that includes Thanksgiving, which Renzi said hasn't been much of a holiday since he turned 23, the year his mother died.
   "My mom was such a warm, kind person who cooked and baked days and days before the holiday just to make everything nice for everyone," Renzi said. "Thanksgiving hasn't been the same after that."
   But, he said, today with the Salazars may be the start of a new tradition.