Sometimes social media fulfills more than the itch to waste time or “connect” with friends. Sometimes words posted go way beyond a “posting” but are a cry for help, a last ditch effort to reach out. This story about a Craigslist posting has astounded everyone from the Star-Ledger newspaper reporter, Kelly Roncace, (“Mistakenly placed Craigslist ad could save a woman’s life”, Nov 22, 2015) where I first encountered it, to the 6:00 nightly news on CBS later this week.
We all know that Craigslist is that vast bulletin board in cyberspace where you can look for almost anything from meeting people, to finding job openings, posting events, and selling things. Sometimes your postings get posted to the wrong category and a bit of irritation ensues. But in this story a miscategorized post saved a life.
Glenn Calderbank was looking for construction materials when he came across a misplaced ad where someone was looking for the donation of a healthy kidney. He had just lost his wife to kidney failure and upon reading the ad saw he was the same blood type. Something inside him just said he was also the right type. He contacted the individual who placed the ad, got tested and shortly will donate his kidney to Nina Saria who had suffered kidney failure more than a year ago and was surviving only through routine dialysis. Originally there was no response to the ad (they didn’t realize it had been misposted) but when Calderbank came across it, it tugged at his heart strings. He had to do something.
Call it serendipity or the intervention of a higher power, but words have a way of escaping their creators and achieving results. In a world where we have recently heard all too much about the negative use of social media, I hope this story reaffirms that through the power of words, miracles CAN happen in cybespace.
Word Power 