This is the time of year when many families and friends are getting together to celebrate the holidays, but for the Etten and Burge families, it’s about celebrating life.
For the past decade, the two families would get together for dinner on December 13 as a celebration of the day Nick Etten gave his kidney to Jack Burge.
“It only took a kidney donation to make a lifelong friend,” Burge said, jokingly to KCRG-TV 9. “He’s now part of the family.”
This year is the 10th anniversary of that surgery. It all started after Burge’s son made a Facebook post and Etten responded immediately after seeing it.
“I had no idea who he was at the time, or that my friend’s dad was sick,” he told KCRG-TV 9. “I’ve got to experience John’s extended life.”
Having gone from not knowing each other to being like family, the two now spend a lot of time together: Iowa football games, organ donations, and family events while also discussing the need for organ donors.
Currently in Iowa there are more than 620 people in need of organs. “It’s nothing to fear you know we should all sign up and I’ll be a part of it,” Etten said.
It makes a connection that lasts a lifetime. “There are none of the people in this world like Nick,” Burge told TV 9.
(Photo: KCRG TV-9)