Special Service Friday, June 14, 7:00pm

The date, time, and year is 2008, Friday the 13th of June. The setting is in Framingham, Massachusetts in my lovely home of yesteryear. I received a phone call at 6:00am from the renal/transplant department at Fletcher Alan Hospital in Burlington, Vermont stating, “Mr. Herrera, we have a matching kidney for you. Come up to Fletcher Alan, and check in, and we’ll prepare you for the transplant.“

WHAT? Oh my stars! After two and a half years on dialysis at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston it’s finally going to happen!

I went to Burlington and had my renal transplant which was an exact match, including perfectly matching antigens from a cadaver. The doctors deemed this as a miracle. I believe the doctors started the surgery at 9:00 pm and finished around 1:00 am. Who knew that Friday the 13th would be my lucky day! For the next two weeks my follow up was in Vermont and I schlepped back and forth until I was well enough to resume follow ups in Boston, which of course, is infinitely closer.

Well, here I am almost 16 years later and my kidney by the name of Paralelepipedo is doing amazingly well. That name means cobblestone in Portuguese and it was my good friend Renato’s favorite word as a child growing up in Brazil. It’s a fun word, a good one at that!

The reason I am regaling you with this short story is because I am coming up on the anniversary of my transplant. Please join me at Congregation Beit Tikva on June 14th at 7:00 pm for the Friday night service where I will be singing as the Cantor and hosting the Oneg Shabbat afterwards. That means catered food and wine!

In gratitude,

Cantor Ephraim Abel Herrera and Paralelepipedo