This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the people of ‘WhoWhatWhy’ and how they helped me get through the worst year of my life.
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This time of year, every nonprofit will try to convince you that it is doing invaluable work and is therefore especially worthy of your backing. While I do believe that WhoWhatWhy fits the bill, I’ll let others make that argument.
Instead, I want to remind you that these donations do not just fund an organization and its mission; they also support actual people and help them pay their bills.
And, in the case of WhoWhatWhy, you won’t find a finer group of human beings.
I know this better than most. Let me tell you why.
Last November, I died.
While I don’t recall the particulars, I apparently told people that day that I was going to die… and then my heart just stopped. If you read my columns, you know that I like to predict things, and this one really takes the cake in that regard.
Fortunately, I was already in the ICU awaiting heart surgery, which is the only reason the medical team was able to bring me back. Even then, it was a really close call, and, for days, I was teetering on the brink between life and death.
I’m not going to lie; it has been a challenging year. I’ve been back in the ICU multiple times (once via helicopter with just minutes to spare); I’ve needed multiple heart procedures; my leg was paralyzed for months as a result of complications from that initial, life-saving surgery; and my condition is not ultimately treatable unless I get a new heart. Hopefully, I’ll be on the transplant list by the end of this year.
Over the past year, I can’t tell you how many times I lay in my bed and wondered whether I would wake up.
I wasn’t the only one.
Not long ago, during an out-patient appointment, I ran across a doctor who had been there on that first day and who was also on duty for the helicopter episode. He was genuinely surprised that I was alive. Trust me, it feels a bit weird when an ICU doctor sees you and his reaction is: “Ohh, I didn’t think you’d make it.”
One of the reasons I did is the outpouring of love and the support I received from people who care about me. And that doesn’t just include my family and my friends but also my co-workers on the WhoWhatWhy team.
Before I go into more detail, there are a couple of things you have to know about WhoWhatWhy.
First of all, we are a news organization that operates on a shoestring budget.
Most of the people involved in WhoWhatWhy are volunteers who believe in truth, quality journalism with an edge, and holding those in power accountable.
In other words, nobody has ever gotten rich from working here.
It’s also important to keep in mind that WhoWhatWhy doesn’t have a physical newsroom; the team is spread out across the globe.
They are not only people who live all over the United States, but also in different European countries and in Asia.
And, since I have been living outside of the US for a decade, nobody from WhoWhatWhy has ever met me in person.
So, when I was clinging to life, it would have been totally understandable if I had slowly faded into the background. As somebody who has moved around from continent to continent, I can assure you that “out of sight, out of mind” is a real thing.
But the opposite happened.
Editor-in-chief Russ Baker often began weekly staff calls with status updates on my condition, and I received countless emails and messages from the team all the time.
From board members and senior editors to current and former interns, I got care packages, memes, encouraging words, and heartfelt wishes from so many of them.
And every kindness helped keep me going.
Then, when I sought help with shouldering the financial burden of such a serious and lengthy illness, my colleagues at WhoWhatWhy led the way in donations… even though so many of us are volunteers.
Russ even tried to visit me in Europe (a plan we sadly had to nix due to concerns of my getting sick).
So, this Thanksgiving I am not only grateful for still being alive, but also for all of the people who helped me survive.
I’ll keep fighting for them.
If you want to do something for them, please sign up for one of WhoWhatWhy’s newsletters, follow our social media accounts, and share our work.
And, if you decide to open your wallets during “giving season,” you can rest assured that your donation to WhoWhatWhy will not only support a news site that tells it how it is, and an organization that is dedicated to training young reporters, but also that your money will go to an outstanding group of people whose hearts are in the right place.
