About two years ago, my wife Sharon and I started a Facebook group called
"Kidney Transplant Donors and Recipients" (aka "KTDR") . She and I were the first two members. Within a year, the membership had swelled to over one-thousand members! The purpose of this group was to create a community that would hopefully share encouragement and moral support. It was working. There was a palpable spirit of sharing and caring that we all enjoyed in those early days. At the beginning, I decided to use the seminal "Recovery" mural as our masthead. I'm referring to the notorious mural that I designed and painted at age 21, that was donated to the Toronto hospital that plucked me back from the abyss of an early grave with a life-saving intervention: dialysis.
 |
| Seminal mural "Recovery" was designed and painted at age 21, and donated to the Toronto hospital that saved my life. |
When the group was first founded, I still had bragging rights to over thirty-four years with my wildly successful kidney transplant from my brother Steve, which took place on that glorious day of October 17th, 1979. It felt good to be able to say that I held the "kidney transplant longevity record" for Saskatchewan at that time. A year later, our ranks mushroomed to in excess of twelve-thousand worldwide members!
As kidney patients and their caregivers are constantly saying to anyone that will listen, a kidney transplant is NOT a cure, but it is damn good treatment, when all goes well! Flash forward to mid-May of 2014...this was the time when I finally admitted, after about two final years of kicking and screaming in protest, that the life of my transplanted kidney had reached its "best before date". Certain lethal substances were above and beyond acceptable levels in my bloodstream. I was dangerously close to a heart attack, or stroking out. Dialysis was once again imperative!
Once the dust settled after I went back on dialysis, I decided that the "generic" image of the "recovery" figures needed to be more specific, so I revisited the image to tweak it with a certain attribute. After all, I reasoned, the image was in its own way a kind of "invocation" for health in much the same way that my ancient forefathers painted "game" on their cave walls as a sort of visual prayer for a successful hunt. I decided, bearing this progeny in mind, to strategically place a "kidney" in the abdomen of the figure on the far right, to plant that seed in the cosmos...to invoke a SECOND TRANSPLANT from a LIVING DONOR.
 |
| There is a subtle but powerful change in the 2015 version of my "Recovery" image. |
Now this revised version of the "Recovery" motif graces the masthead of KTDR, as a visual prayer for ALL the members and for every kidney patient worldwide, that we may ALL attract a living donor, and having done so, sustain glowing, vibrant health for many many year! That is my prayer that I offer up to the universe.
Michael R. Gaudet was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure only fourteen years after his father, Robert, died of kidney disease in Michael’s childhood. After his initial diagnosis, Michael was determined to achieve a measure of immortality.
He designed and painted the seminal mural "Recovery 1", which he donated to the Toronto hospital that saved his life. This singular act cast the mold for the rest of his life, in which he battled chronic kidney disease and forged a career as one of Canada’s best-known mural painters.
Michael has since designed and painted over 60 large murals across Canada. Today, he lives with his wife Sharon in the resort village of Manitou Beach in central Saskatchewan, where they own and operate a seasonal art gallery called “G-G’s Gallery & Gifts.”
Michael is in the final stages of releasing Book 1 of the trilogy "Dancing with Rejection: A Beginner's Guide to Immortality". Please steer your search engine here to visit the Facebook page that was created to usher in the launch. Curious? Could this be the book for you? Come on over, we'll see you there.
