Remembering Our
Donor Heroes

My son, Micah Ryne Estes, lost his life on May 16, 2023, after driving himself to our local hospital in Lebanon, TN. He received CPR for five minutes after losing his heartbeat there and life flighted to Vanderbilt University Hospital. He was intubated and comatose. He woke to speak to us after a few days, and we were able to love on him for one whole day before he had to be reintubated. He was there a total of ten days at the Vanderbilt University Critical Care Tower before he lost his battle. He donated his usable organs, tissue and eyes. He left behind a five-year-old son who was his entire life. Micah had the biggest heart and wanted to make everyone around him laugh and have the best time. He was always the life of a party. His favorite place was always the lake. He lived a good life but suffered from anxiety and depression and just couldn’t push himself to get help. He carried so much inside and had a hard time asking anyone for help. He has one older brother, Will, who spoke at his memorial and said it best that he asked his brother to let him carry some of his burden, but he never would. He asked people to do better and let others, especially loved ones, help carry your burdens instead of on your own and when you do, think of his brother. My oldest son is 35, and he and I got matching semi colon tattoos to honor Micah and our forever motto is REMEMBER M.E.; that is something we will always do! He will never be forgotten!

This is what Will wrote about Micah for his donor walk:

“I want you to know about a sweet, big-hearted buy who became a complicated man. I can’t in good faith say that Micah was all good, and it would be a bold-faced lie to say he was all bad, but he was ours. Micah would make you laugh until you couldn’t breathe. Then he would make you weep with worry. He would frustrate you to the ends of the earth by keeping things bottled up inside. Then he would surprise you by opening up with shocking candor and humility. Micah was hard to love sometimes, but he loved fiercely and devotedly in return. He scared us and thrilled us and surprised us, and he was ours. There will never be anyone else like him.”