Consider this:

This Thanksgiving, I’m Giving Thanks To A Stranger

Dear Anonymous Bone Marrow Donor,

First and foremost, thank you. Thank you for joining a registry of donors who are on-call for active duty. A military analogy seems apt for describing the way you and your fellow volunteers spend months or even years awaiting a phone call that informs you, you’re up. Recently, on what probably began as a perfectly ordinary day, someone from Be The Match told you your marrow matched that of a 14-year-old boy. You don’t know this lad, but I do. He has a laser bright smile and is sweet and funny and strong. Right now, due to a rare bone marrow disease, he’s the wrong shade of pale.

Donor, it won’t be long now before our young friend has your healthy stem cells on round-the-clock patrol, busily building brand new blood cells in his fragile body.

I say again, thank you.

All I know about you is that you’re a 23-year-old healthy male. You could be here in California, grateful for every drop of rain that might dent our stubborn drought. You might live in Australia, where you’re already thinking about a barbeque on the beach at Christmas.

Wherever you are, I wonder what kind of guy in his early twenties voluntarily signs up to undergo a harrowing “harvest” procedure? Has an anonymous angel saved someone you loved? Have you lost someone you treasured to an intractable disease? Or are you one of those rare altruistic souls with compassion to spare.

The thing is, Donor, I know that saving a stranger’s life takes more than just compassion. It takes unwavering commitment. I know you already underwent extensive genetic testing to confirm a match. Soon you’ll spend a week taking drugs to boost the production of your own stem cells. When it’s your turn on the operating room table, you’ll doze under general anesthesia while doctors use special needles to extract precious marrow from the spongy center of your hard hip bones.

An hour later, you’ll slowly wake up in the recovery room, with an IV dripping your own red blood cells back into your veins. You’ll be exhausted. Your throat will hurt. You’ll probably vomit. Your body will hurt for days.

While a nurse helps you to the bathroom, your magical marrow will be winging its way to our local hospital where another brave young man waits in his own open-backed gown. He’ll have endured chemo and countless blood transfusions to prepare for your incredible gift. Once the transplant procedure is over, our dear friend will be the one on active duty, declaring war on fever and infection as if his life depends on it.

Because it does.

Thanksgiving is a time when we put gratitude under a microscope, and that’s a good thing. Donor, if you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope it’s filled with love, laughter and extremely good health. If you don’t, today’s as good a day as any to share my boundless gratitude – for your compassion, your commitment and your strong, sustaining marrow.

This article appeared in the Marin Independent Journal.

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Cook this:

Cranberry Nut Bread

It’s a long-standing tradition in our family to serve this yummy cranberry nut bread for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I figured the recipe had been handed down from one of my grandmothers or even a great grandmother. Then I learned it comes straight from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Oh well. This bread is still a great addition to a festive meal. Enjoy!

1 orange

½ cup chopped walnuts

2 cup white flour

2 Tbs butter

½ tsp salt

1 egg

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp baking soda

1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

Boiling water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray or grease a bread pan.

Grate rind off the orange, and then squeeze out all the juice into measuring a cup. Add enough boiling water to make ¾ cup of liquid. Add orange rind and butter and stir to melt butter.

Beat eggs in another bowl, gradually adding sugar and beating well. Add all the remaining ingredients and the orange mixture and blend well.

Pour batter into the loaf tin. Bake one hour or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Remove from pan, turn onto a rack and let cool.

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Read this:

The Poison Artist by Jonathan Moore

My dad, Jules, has a book recommendation that’s particularly suited for readers in and around San Francisco. If you love a good murder mystery that happens to be set in the City By The Bay, this might be your perfect holiday book.

If you’re enthralled by museums and art, and especially if you’re enthralled by San Francisco museums and art, here’s a murder mystery you’ll want to read.

It’s murder he wrote. The book is The Poison Artist by Jonathan Moore. Set all around San Francisco, it’s Fall of the House of Usher meets “Vertigo.” There’s a brilliant scientist, a dogged detective, a smart coroner, an artist-girlfriend and a genuine femme fatale.

There are also two San Francisco museums — the Legion of Honor and the Haas-Lillienthal House — and a painting that links them both. Plus fog and restaurants and Sausalito.

But most importantly, The Poison Artist is a compelling read … and twice as compelling for devotees of museums, art and San Francisco.