by Nancy Lee Doige

烏蕪 譯

Ryan’s Hope

賴安的希望

by Nancy Lee Doige

烏蕪 譯

施與有時(shí)候也是一種收獲，在人死后把身體器官捐贈(zèng)出去不僅能使自己的生命更有意義，也許還能為自己在世的親人帶來一絲慰藉。

The day started out normally enough. Ryan was upstairs preparing to leave for school, while his sixyear-old sister, Jamie, waited for him at the front door.

At ten years old, Ryan loved knowledge and seemed to have an abundance of it, far beyond his years. When he was in frst grade, the children in his class were asked to draw a picture and answer the question, “If you could be anyone, who would you be?” Ryan wrote: “If I could be anyone, I’d want to be God.” At age seven, while sitting in church one day, he wrote:

The tree of Life, O, the tree of Glory

The tree of God of the World, O, the tree of me

Suddenly, Ryan called out that he had a headache. I went upstairs and found him lying on his bed. By the time we arrived at the hospital he was unconscious. We stood by helplessly as the doctors fought to save his life.

那天，一切都開始得很平常。賴安在樓上收拾東西，準(zhǔn)備去上學(xué)，而他六歲的妹妹潔米則在門口等他。

年僅十歲，賴安熱愛知識，學(xué)識似乎也頗為豐富，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過了他這個(gè)年紀(jì)。在他讀一年級的時(shí)候，老師要求班上的孩子畫一幅畫并回答這個(gè)問題：“如果你可以做任何人，你想做誰？”賴安寫道：“如果我可以做任何人，我想做上帝?！痹谒邭q時(shí)，有一天，他坐在教堂里，寫道：

生命之樹，噢，光榮之樹

世界之神之樹，噢，吾之樹

突然，賴安大喊頭痛。我走上樓，發(fā)現(xiàn)他倒在了床上。當(dāng)我們到達(dá)醫(yī)院時(shí)，他已經(jīng)不省人事。醫(yī)生在全力挽救他的生命，而我們眼見一切，無能為力。

A couple of hours later we were finally allowed to see him. He was hooked up to a life support system. When the doctor told us our son had suffered a massive1)cerebral2)haemorrhageand was “l(fā)egally and clinically brain dead,” it felt like a terrible nightmare. We went into shock. Nothing more could be done, the doctor said, and asked if we would consider organ donation. Astonishingly, we had discussed this with Ryan only recently. We looked at each other and simultaneously replied, “Oh yes, Ryan would have wanted that.”

In April, Ryan had seen his dad filling out the organ donor card on the back of his driver’s license. His dad had explained to him about organ donation and how you could help save another’s life by agreeing to donate your organs when you die.

Organ donation made such perfect sense to Ryan, he went on his own campaign persuading the entire family to sign donor cards. We had no doubt that donating Ryan’s organs was the right thing to do.

Then, on a beautiful morning four months after Ryan’s death, the first letter arrived, addressed to my husband and me. As we read it, we both began to weep. It was from a twentyyear-old university student thanking us for our “gift of sight.” He had received one of Ryan’s3)corneasand could now see again. It is difficult to describe our emotions—we wept, but at the same time, we felt wonderful.

Sometime later we received a second letter from a young woman of thirty who had received one of Ryan’s kidneys and his4)pancreas. She’d had diabetes since she was fve, spending much of her recent years hooked up to a5)dialysismachine. She told us that because of Ryan, she was now free from6)insulinand dialysis, able to work again and return to a normal life.

數(shù)小時(shí)后，我們終于得到了允許，可以進(jìn)去看他。他身上連接著生命維持系統(tǒng)。醫(yī)生告訴我們，我們兒子的腦部大量出血，已經(jīng)“在法律上和臨床上被判定為腦死亡”，那時(shí)的感覺就像置身一個(gè)恐怖的噩夢當(dāng)中。我們深受打擊。醫(yī)生說已經(jīng)盡力了，并詢問我們要不要考慮器官捐贈(zèng)。令人詫異的是，我們最近才和賴安討論過這個(gè)問題。我們看著彼此，異口同聲地回答道：“噢，要，賴安會(huì)希望這樣做的。”

四月的時(shí)候，賴安看到他爸爸在駕照的背后填寫器官捐贈(zèng)卡。他爸爸給他解釋了器官捐贈(zèng)的事，告訴他，人死后如何能夠通過同意把自己的器官捐贈(zèng)出去而挽救其他人的生命。

賴安完全理解了器官捐贈(zèng)是怎么一回事，并開始勸說全家去填捐贈(zèng)卡。毋庸置疑，把賴安的器官捐贈(zèng)出去是件正確的事。

然后，在賴安去世四個(gè)月后的一個(gè)美麗清晨，第一封信到了，收信人是我和我丈夫。當(dāng)我們讀到這封信時(shí)，我們倆都哭了起來。這是一名二十歲的大學(xué)生寄來的，為了感謝我們贈(zèng)予他“光明的禮物”。他移植了賴安的一只眼角膜，現(xiàn)在能重見光明了。很難用言語去描述我們的感受—我們一邊哭泣，但是同時(shí)，我們又感到很奇妙。

然后有一天，我們收到了第二封信，來自一名三十歲的年輕女子，她接受了賴安的一只腎和胰腺。自五歲起，她就一直患有糖尿病，近年來，多數(shù)時(shí)間都得掛著一臺透析機(jī)。她告訴我們因?yàn)橘嚢?，她現(xiàn)在再也不用注射胰島素和接受透析，還能夠再次工作，過回正常的生活。

Early May brought the painful frst anniversary of our son’s death. Then we received our third letter. A young boy of sixteen, born with7)cystic fbrosis, had received Ryan’s lungs. Without the double lung transplant he received, he would have died. Besides being able to return to school, he was now doing things he had never done before—running, playing hockey and roller blading with his friends. Knowing this boy’s life had been renewed lifted our spirits immensely.

Such joy seemed to come from our sorrow, so much happiness from our loss.

Although nothing could take away our pain, we took great comfort and peace in knowing that Ryan had done something most of us will never do—he had saved lives!

That summer, while on vacation in8)Haliburton, we met a young man—by sheer coincidence—who had had a kidney and pancreas transplant at the same hospital where some of Ryan’s organs had been transplanted. He knew the young woman who had received her kidney and pancreas on May 2 from a ten-year-old boy he believed to be our son. Her name was Lisa, and she was doing great.

This chance meeting inspired me, and the following spring I decided to share our experiences with others. I faxed my article to three papers, and to my astonishment, all three wanted to feature it! A furry of interviews and photo sessions followed, and we experienced an excitement we thought we were no longer capable of.

五月初，我們兒子去世的第一個(gè)痛苦的周年紀(jì)念日到了。然后我們收到了第三封信。一個(gè)生來就患有囊腫性纖維化的十六歲少年接受了賴安的兩只肺。如果他沒能接受雙肺移植手術(shù)，他現(xiàn)在可能已經(jīng)死了?，F(xiàn)在他除了可以重返校園外，還能做許多以前從未做過的事—奔跑、與朋友們玩曲棍球和滑滑輪。得知這個(gè)男孩已經(jīng)重獲新生，我們的精神為之一振。

這種喜悅似乎來自于我們的悲傷，這么多的快樂似乎來自于我們的失去。

盡管沒有任何東西能夠帶走我們的傷痛，但是得知賴安做了一件我們大多數(shù)人都無法做到的事—他挽救了許多生命，我們的內(nèi)心得到了極大的安慰和平靜。

那個(gè)夏天，當(dāng)我們在哈利伯頓縣度假時(shí)，我們在一個(gè)純屬偶然的情況下遇到了一名青年，他在一家醫(yī)院接受了腎和胰腺的移植手術(shù)，而賴安的一些器官也恰巧被轉(zhuǎn)移到那家醫(yī)院。他認(rèn)識那個(gè)在5月2號接受了一個(gè)十歲男孩的腎和胰腺移植的年輕女子，他相信那個(gè)男孩就是我們的兒子。而那年輕女子名叫麗莎，她的狀況不錯(cuò)。

這次巧遇鼓舞了我，然后在來年春天我決定把我們的經(jīng)歷與他人分享。我把我的文章傳真給了三家報(bào)紙。出乎我意料的是，這三家報(bào)紙都想將其作為專題文章！一系列的采訪和拍照邀約接踵而至，我們心里感受到了本以為再也無法擁有的悸動(dòng)。

1) cerebral [?ser?br?l] adj. 腦的，大腦的

2) haemorrhage [?hem?r?d?] n. 出血（尤指大出血），溢血

3) cornea [?k??n??] n. 角膜

4) pancreas [?p?nkr??s] n. 胰腺

5) dialysis [da???l?s?s] n. 透析，分離

6) insulin [??nsj?l?n] n. 胰島素

7) cystic fbrosis 囊腫性纖維化（屬遺傳性胰腺?。?/p>

8) Haliburton 哈利伯頓縣，位于加拿大的安大略省

When the first article appeared, Dale and I were totally overwhelmed when we opened the paper to find that Ryan’s story of hope was the banner story—right on the front page! Included in the article was the poem Ryan had written when he was seven, just as we had it inscribed on his tombstone. We wept tears of joy and sadness as we read it over and over. In his brief ten years on this earth, our son Ryan had made a difference.

Apparently Lisa also read the article. When she saw Ryan’s poem, she recognized it from a letter we had sent her and realized he was her organ donor. The article said we would be at the Gift of Life medal presentation in Toronto two weeks later, so she decided to attend. Once there, she was unsure about introducing herself. We all wore name tags, and when Lisa found herself standing next to my husband Dale she just couldn’t hold back. You can imagine the emotional scene of hugs and tears that followed! It was truly a miraculous, unforgettable moment! It felt so wonderful to see her standing there alive and healthy, knowing that our son had helped make that possible. Ryan’s kidney and pancreas had apparently been a perfect match. And part of him now lives on in her.

Moments later, a woman approached us with her eight-year-old daughter. “I think my daughter has your son’s kidney,” she said. Kasia was just four when both of her kidneys had shut down and she had gone on dialysis. The details of her transplant matched, and we all felt certain it must have been Ryan’s kidney that had given this lovely girl a new life. A few weeks later when we visited Ryan’s grave, we wept tears of joy when we found a beautiful drawing left there, signed “Kasia.”

第一篇文章出來了，當(dāng)我和戴爾打開報(bào)紙并發(fā)現(xiàn)賴安的希望故事被列為標(biāo)題故事時(shí)—就放在報(bào)紙的頭版，我們都激動(dòng)得無法自已。文章里包含了賴安七歲時(shí)寫的那首詩，也是我們刻在他墓碑上的那首。我們一遍又一遍地閱讀這篇文章，流出了混雜著喜悅與悲傷的淚水。在他在世的短短十年里，我們的兒子賴安做了件很了不起的事。

顯然，麗莎也讀到了那篇文章。當(dāng)她看到報(bào)紙上賴安的那首詩時(shí)，她認(rèn)出這就是我們在寄給她的信里提過的那一首，她意識到賴安就是她的捐贈(zèng)者。文章中提到我們將會(huì)出席兩周后在多倫多舉辦的“生命之禮”頒獎(jiǎng)儀式，于是她也決定參加。到了那里后，她不確定要如何介紹她自己。我們都戴著銘牌，當(dāng)麗莎發(fā)現(xiàn)自己就站在我丈夫戴爾旁邊時(shí)，她再也忍不住了。你可以想象得到那個(gè)激動(dòng)人心的場景，先是擁抱，然后是淚水！那實(shí)在是一個(gè)不可思議、永生難忘的時(shí)刻！看著她充滿生氣、健健康康地站在那里，知道是我們的兒子使之成為可能，那種感覺是多么的奇妙。賴安的腎和胰腺明顯和她十分匹配?，F(xiàn)在，他身體的一部分在她的體內(nèi)繼續(xù)存活。

過了一會(huì)兒，一名女子帶著她八歲的女兒走到了我們跟前?！拔蚁胛遗畠簱碛心銉鹤拥囊粋€(gè)腎”，她說道。在卡莎四歲那年，她的兩個(gè)腎都衰竭了，并開始接受透析。她移植手術(shù)的細(xì)節(jié)吻合，我們都很確定準(zhǔn)是賴安的腎賦予了這個(gè)可愛的小女孩新的生命。幾周后，我們?nèi)ツ沟乜促嚢矔r(shí)，在那里發(fā)現(xiàn)了一張美麗的圖畫，署名人為“卡莎”，我們?yōu)榇肆鞒隽讼矏偟臏I水。

Due to the Canadian9)confidentialitylaws, meetings such as these are very rare, and it is impossible to describe the intense emotions that result. When Ryan died I thought I would never again feel joy. But meeting Lisa and Kasia was a kind of miracle, opening my heart to those feelings I thought had been forever buried with my son.

Today, I now know I will always be the mother of two children. Ryan is, and always will be, part of our family and our lives. Although the pain of losing him will never completely leave me, I have begun putting the pieces of my life back together, though it now takes a different shape.

由于加拿大的保密法，像這樣的碰面機(jī)會(huì)非常罕見，人們也不可能描述出由此而產(chǎn)生的強(qiáng)烈情感。當(dāng)賴安去世時(shí)，我以為我再也不會(huì)感到快樂了。但是與麗莎和卡莎的會(huì)面就像一個(gè)奇跡，打開了我的心房，讓我能夠再次感受到那些本以為已經(jīng)隨著我兒子永遠(yuǎn)埋葬了的感覺。

今天，我知道自己永遠(yuǎn)都會(huì)是兩個(gè)孩子的母親。賴安是，也一直會(huì)是我們家里的一份子，我們生命的一部分。盡管失去他的痛苦永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)完全離我而去，但是我已經(jīng)開始把我生命的碎片重新拼湊起來，盡管它現(xiàn)在的外觀有所不同。

9) confdentiality [k?nf??den????l?t?] n. 機(jī)密性