An anatomy lesson to touch the heart

Last week, for the second time, I attended the University of Minnesota' Anatomy Bequest Program Memorial Service. It's a long title for something very simple: gratitude.

My dear friend and mentor Dee Sanford passed away in May 2007 after a difficult battle with cancer. Short as her illness was, she suffered too long. But even in death, this brave and sensitive woman made a final gesture of generosity to the people around her: She donated her body to the Anatomy Department at the university where she had worked.

I met Dee in 2005 when I began working in the General College as an adviser. She was what you would call a nontraditional student. She went back to college as an adult, graduated with honors and nearly finished her Ph.D. in sociology.

She was an adviser who listened to students. She could tell you about their moms, their dads and their sisters, and then tell you which direction their research project should go, all while sitting in a small, dimly lit office with rock 'n' roll songs playing in the background. She could work with all students -- reluctant ones, overeager ones, strong-willed ones. Dee could pull them into or out of themselves, so that they could learn to be researchers and scholars and to believe in themselves.

She spent a lifetime advising students at the university. Giving her body to the Anatomy Department was a continuation of that effort.

Each year, the anatomy students create a service to thank the families of donors. The service features pictures, interviews with students, music, poetry and art. I'm amazed that future health care professionals have such creative talents. I didn't know that doctors could sing, or that dentists could recite Shakespeare, or that my future physical therapist might be an accomplished French horn player.

Repeatedly throughout the program, the students thank the families and the donors themselves for their gift. It is clear that the opportunity to learn anatomy this way means more to them than studying a computer slide or a textbook.

The students are undoubtedly sincere in their belief that the donors have given them an education in anatomy. But I think the lesson is a little bigger and a little simpler than that. I think the gift is really the gift of giving. These donors are showing the students, and the rest of us, what truly giving people are made of.

In 2008, another friend and mentor, Harvey Carlson, also an adviser in the General College, donated his body to the anatomy program. Just like Dee, Harvey was a nontraditional student who made a second career out of advising other students. I can only imagine the strength and the generosity of the rest of the community of donors whose final wish is one of service. It's a completely selfless act of giving, a lesson we can all take to heart.

----

Maureen Ramirez is a regent of the University of Minnesota and director of the Civic Engagement Table.

Gallery

Fullscreen SlideshowPrevious Slide

1 of 1

Next Slide