Not all superheroes wear capes
Jimmy Januska was a typical 15-year-old teen who embraced life. He loved playing sports and building Legos for hours. He had many friends and would eagerly jump on a dance floor without hesitation. Everyone loved Jimmy.
That’s why Jimmy’s tragic death left an unimaginable hole in the life of his parents Jim and Theresa, his sister Rachel and all who knew him. Jimmy had just left his parents’ house to go for a short motorcycle ride with a friend when the accident happened.
The police rushed his parents to the hospital where they eventually learned that Jimmy would not survive despite the doctors’ life-saving efforts.
Jim pulled Theresa and Rachel together and asked them what they are going to do now, and that’s when the topic of donation came up.
The family made the selfless decision to donate Jimmy’s organs and tissues to save and heal lives.
They would later learn Jimmy’s heart valves would help a little boy in Arizona and his left kidney would save the life of a woman on her death bed.
“I guess that’s what God wanted him to do,” Theresa shares.
This spring would have been Jimmy’s high school graduation and as Theresa is preparing some remarks to say at the ceremony, she thinks back to when Jimmy was younger and the story she shared during his funeral.
“He wanted to be a superhero. That’s all he talked about. ‘Mom, if I could be any superhero who do you think I would be?’ He asked this all the time. Some of his favorites were Iron Man and Spiderman. He loved them all and so I would give him a different answer each time,” remembers Theresa.
During his funeral, she answered Jimmy’s question.
“In my speech, I put, ‘Jimmy, I have the answer to your question,’ and I said that he was Superman.”
As superheroes do, Jimmy saved many lives through the gift of donation.