The Ultimate Volunteer: Advocates, Patients and Politicians All Touched by Elizabeth Kemble’s Connection

By Karen Werstein
Donate Life Northwest
 

I didn’t even know Elizabeth Kemble myself when I was invited to sit  down with a few local non-profit leaders who knew her well and wanted to share about her impact and the tragedy of her passing. After 30 minutes, I felt I had lost a friend, as well.
 
“Elizabeth Kemble’s life was over too soon, but her life was not in vain,” says Marva Mitchell, volunteer with Meals on Wheels, where she first met Elizabeth.
 
Several times a week, on her way to kidney dialysis, Elizabeth walked by Meals on Wheels. One day, after dialysis, Elizabeth told her husband she was going to work there. And she did. “She was the only person to be hired on the spot!” claims Marva. She was a perfect fit, upbeat, friendly, compassionate and she could translate Spanish.”
 
What’s really remarkable, though, is that Elizabeth was a perfect fit every single place she went.
 
Elizabeth also volunteered with Ride Connection, Donate Life Northwest, National Kidney Foundation and NW Renal Network, just to name just a few. She was true connector.
 
Many of these organizations have a natural tie to one another, but they didn’t really partner until Elizabeth made the connections.
 
Elizabeth’s impact was bigger than the sum of its parts. She didn’t work in a vacuum and so she made sure everyone else all worked together as well.
 
Elizabeth was on her third kidney transplant and had been on and off dialysis for over 30 years. She could see the big picture of the system and connected folks affiliated with her disease; most may have never met without her.
 
She not only connected organizations, she also connected with individual people.
 
“Elizabeth had a way of sitting with people and instantly connecting with them,” says Aimee Adelmann, Education Coordinator for Donate Life Northwest. “She always sat with people, looked you in the eye and asked, ‘how are you?’ in a way that you knew she really meant it.”
 
“She had a ripple effect,” says Lisa Hall Patient Services Director for NW Renal Network. “Once she started, she couldn’t get enough! She was a cheerleader and ambassador.”
 
Not only did she sit on the National Kidney Foundation program planning committees, she was a peer mentor, and a legislative advocate. The small but mighty woman could sit with her newest friend, help him through the nuts and bolts of his diagnosis of kidney failure and explain what to expect on dialysis. She never once would complain about her own thirty year kidney struggle. In the next moment, she could convince policy makers in DC that the allocation system for kidney transplant has some flaws and needed an adjustment.
 
There are as many photos of Elizabeth hugging senators as there are of her hugging local community members in need of food or friends on the kidney transplant waiting list.
 
“Despite battling kidney disease, not knowing how she would feel from one day to the next, Elizabeth was always upbeat, energetic, and passionate about our mission to educate and support people facing the same challenges, “ said Patty McCormac, RN of the National Kidney Foundation. “It would have been understandable for Elizabeth to hunker down and focus on her own health.  Instead, [she] chose to open herself up, give of her time and energy to help others. She fought hard for herself --- doing all she needed to be as healthy as she could be, but she also fought for the wider kidney community.”  
 
“Elizabeth had a powerful presence in the kindest way. She changed me both professionally and personally,” says Julie Wilcke, Chief Operating Officer of Ride Connection with a wistful smile on her face as she shows photo after photo of Elizabeth with her arm around each person she met. “She was selfless and genuine and was always the bright light in the room.”
 
As they swap stories, Adelmann remembers aloud that Elizabeth truly understood the patient’s perspective. As an advocate for living donation, she would share openly and honestly about her own experience receiving a living kidney from her mother.  “She gets through to others like no other,” Adelmann said.  
 
Mitchell called Elizabeth “a Godsend.”
 
“[Elizabeth] had been volunteering at Meals on Wheels for quite a while when I needed to go on vacation. As I was training her to do my work, we started to connect and share stories,” Mitchell said.  
 
One day, Mitchell shared with Elizabeth that her husband, Cal, was recently diagnosed with kidney failure and needed to start dialysis. Elizabeth immediately told all about the process and about his options for looking for a living donor.  She told Cal he had to “stay positive no matter what. Even when dialysis gets hard, it’s keeping you alive,” Mitchell remembers.
 
“Cal did everything [Elizabeth] suggested. She was some woman,” Mitchell said.
 
As Marva finishes sharing, Cal almost interrupts her with, “She was a small woman...but a giant.”
 
Elizabeth’s gracious and generous spirit will be greatly missed by all those whose lives she touched.
 

These are just the stories we know from the folks we have contact with. Please feel free to share your own stories of Elizabeth on our Facebook page. Help keep her spirit alive so others may be touched by her as you were.