And two friends forever connected by a selfless act.

When Marie Molin, a teacher at Sterling Montessori School in Morrisville, heard that her good friend Lori Christian of Cary was in need of a new kidney, her reaction wasn’t knee-jerk, but it was immediate.

Molin, 45, offered to be the donor. And somehow she sensed that she would be a match for her friend.

Of course Christian didn’t take her seriously right away. “I had to call her like six times before she would give me the number” to call about getting tested, Molin said.

Following months of testing — MRIs, blood tests, urinalyses — it was determined that Molin was indeed a match for her friend.

And on Friday the two women joined each other at Duke University Hospital for the transplant operation that would change both of their lives forever.

“It always felt so far away,” Christian said the day before the operation.

And then the day was finally here.

Getting Sick
Christian, a 47-year-old Wake County District Court judge, has known her kidneys were failing for the last six or seven years. Doctors think an undetected infection caused the deterioration. Christian recalls the problems started shortly after a trip to Mexico. She noticed swelling.

She took prescribed steroids for a time, which caused weight gain.

She really began feeling bad about a year ago. She kept up with her busy job and family, but she was tired and not eating much. She would come home exhausted and head for the couch.

Doctors discovered her kidneys were functioning at only 14 or 15 percent.

“The doctors said if you don’t do this you will die at this point,” Christian said.

She put herself on a kidney transplant list and began the wait for a donor. She only told a few people about her health condition. Molin was one of them.

While waiting for a donor, Christian also began dialysis. She opted for home dialysis so she could maintain a relatively normal schedule. Her husband, Wayne, a SAS employee, was trained to do the procedures, needed every other day.

“While dialysis saved me, home hemo[dialysis] gave me a life," Christian said.

Friends
Molin has been teaching at Sterling Montessori for 11 years, teaching 3- to 6-year-olds. Christian’s son, Justin, was in Molin’s class, and the two mothers became friends. Molin has a son Justin’s age and the two boys, now 12, are great friends.

“She’s just been a good friend,” Christian said of Molin, adding that the teacher practices what she preaches at the Montessori school. “She teaches about empathy and friendship and being kind.”

Their lives are busy raising children, but the two women talk frequently and have stayed in close touch over the years.

“We joke all the time,” Molin said.

A kidney transplant, however, is serious stuff.

Molin’s family was concerned about her giving away a kidney.

But the teacher never waivered.

“I know my body is healthy. The risk is very low. Why would something happen to me?” Molin said.

Her family came around. Her parents flew in from New York a couple days before the surgery.

Christian will be out of work a couple of months. She, the doctors and her family will be crossing their fingers that her body doesn’t reject Molin’s gift.

Her job as judge is an elected position, and she says she is thankful that she is running unopposed in November. She doesn’t know whether she could have run a campaign.

Molin will be out a couple of weeks. So she had some explaining to her students.

The class did a unit recently on the human body, a perfect opportunity to broach the subject.

Molin explained that her friend was sick and that she was going to give her a kidney because people can live with one healthy kidney. The bean-shaped organs filter waste and excess water from the blood.

“It’s like having two lolipops,” Molin explained to the students, “and I’m giving a friend one to share.”

Christian says Molin’s offer of a kidney was totally unexpected. How do you even attempt to say “thank you”? Christian says those words seem so empty in comparison to the magnitude of the gift.

“I said you can thank me by taking care of the kidney I’m giving you,” Molin said. “I’ll be happy that you’re taking good care of it.”