Larry Swilling and his wife Jimmie Sue have been happily married 57 years. So happily, in fact, that Larry has now come to realize the downside of loving someone so much you can’t live without them.Larry Swilling and his wife Jimmie Sue. Jimmie Sue needs a kidney donor and no one in the family is a suitable match, so Larry has taken to the streets to try to find one.“She’s my heart,” he said.Heart has never been an issue for these two.What’s always been lacking is a kidney. Jimmie Sue was born with only one, and now that one is shot. She needs a transplant but neither her husband, nor anyone tested in her family, is a suitable match.Jimmie Sue is on a donor list, but the wait is about two or three years long and that’s for a kidney from a deceased donor. Transplant patients who get their kidneys from living donors tend to live longer.Which is why Larry decided to try a completely radical approach to securing a kidney: asking for it, from total strangers.“I don’t care what people think,” Larry said. He tells his wife, “I’m going to get you a kidney.”Never mind that most people won’t give panhandlers their pocket change, let alone their vital organs. A few months ago, Larry, at 77, has been walking all over his hometown of Anderson, S.C. and the surrounding towns basically begging for a kidney.And on out on the street, wearing a signboard — “Need kidney 4 wife” — he’s not shy in asking passersby: “I sure could use your kidney.”
