Gift of a lifetime

Health: May has brought not only Mother’s Day but the National Marrow Donor Program’s “Thanks Mom” donor drive—and Diane Pearl is celebrating an answer to yet another prayer by meeting the two bone marrow donors who saved her children’s lives | Alisa Harris

Diane with Matt, Alexandra, and husband Mark at home.

Two years ago, when 9-year-old Matt Pearl was in the hospital to receive a bone marrow transplant, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols gave him an autographed baseball. Matt donated it to a gala to raise money for a Ronald McDonald House and arrived at the gala in a wheelchair. When the bidding on the ball reached $3,500, Matt walked to the stage, took the ball, and said, "I just want to hold it one more time." The bidding then went up to $20,000. When Matt handed the ball to the winner, the winner handed it back.

That was the latest of many one-to-one gifts. This story started in 1995, when Diane Pearl gave birth to her second child. The line on Diane's electrocardiogram went flat and doctors struggled to save both Diane and her baby girl Alexandra, born premature and still not breathing.