RED DEER COUNTY – Auctioneer Tom Kean never gives up, especially for his beloved wife Merrill.
The 69-year-old county businessman, known by locals as The Colonel, is continuing his determined quest to find his ailing wife a new kidney.
Merrill was diagnosed 14 years ago with a condition called focal segmental glomerulo sclerosis, a hereditary issue that afflicted her mother and mother's twin sister, as well as her brother.
Merrill’s kidney became worse over time, and is now only five per cent functional. The 62-year-old mother and grandmother has been on dialysis every night for the past year and could be on it for the rest of her life.
She is on the waiting list and receives ongoing treatment and observation in the City of Red Deer but so far, the right blood match for a transplant has not been found.
But the Colonel never gives up. Taking his cue from Calgarian Ryan McLennan who had a large highway billboard created in 2018 to find a new kidney, the Colonel recently decided he would do the same. Was this desperation to do whatever it takes to help the love of his life?
"Anybody who needs a kidney transplant is in desperation," said the Colonel, who lives with his wife on a five-acre farmstead about 12 kilometres northwest of Penhold. “Her health will go downhill. It will never get better until we get a kidney.”
The auctioneer, whose business has been limited by the COVID-19 pandemic to just one outdoor auction in a corn field last October, then approached his long-time friend Stan Jacobson, a retired Red Deer sign company owner with more than 40 years of sign making experience who has known the couple for more than 20 years.
“Me and Tom horse trade. He has an old stuffed deer head from one of his C-cans he traded me for. Me and Tom are always trading back and forth,” said Jacobson with a hearty chuckle. “I try to help him out. I did all their trucks for them free of charge too."
“This is for Merrill too. Merrill reminds me of my mom, so I try to help out when I can,” added Jacobson. “He asked me if there was anything I can do. He originally wanted to do a sign about four foot by six foot and is said, ‘if it was me, I would do a side of a van.’ He said, ‘I have a van'.”
And then Tom pulled out his 15-foot 1997 Ford cube van just under two weeks ago and they created a new travelling sign for Merrill. It took the veteran retired sign man about four hours to get the job done.
“If this helps to get Merrill better that’s what we were going for,” said Jacobson, who now lives in Three Hills to be closer to family.
Last week, the Colonel had the old cube van with the new sign parked in Penhold in front of a friend’s house across from Tim Hortons.
“It stands out right there. People stop and take pictures,” said the Colonel. He said he’s moving his sign on wheels around to different locations, including farmers markets and even to Innisfail."
“I will go anywhere,” he said, adding he has not yet attracted a blood match for Merrill but there’s been plenty of heartfelt responses.
“We’ve had people make phone calls. It’s been absolutely phenomenal. That’s a great sign, wonderful.
“People even take a picture of the sign and put it on social media. Other people are getting the word out. If they can’t be a donor, they get the word out on their own. It is certainly helping. People are wonderful.”
If any citizen wants to help Merrill with a live donor kidney, they can call her at 403-347-8988, and the Living Donor Clinic 1-866-253-6833.
For more information on becoming a living donor go to:
https://kidney.ca/Get-Involved/Be-an-Organ-Donor/Consider-Being-a-Living-Kidney-Donor
To become a registered organ donor in Alberta (deceased) go to:
