ASHLAND When the call came, Becki Younce admits, she let it go to voicemail.
In was around 5 p.m. Monday, and she had just arrived home after taking her 16-year-old daughter, Ashlee, to Akron for dialysis.
Ashlee had been placed on a waiting list to receive a kidney transplant from a deceased donor in January 2020 because of end-stage renal failure. For months, they had traveled to Akron Children s Hospital three times a week for dialysis an hour to get there, four hours at the hospital and another hour home. I thought it was an appointment reminder, because we were supposed to meet with a doctor in Cincinnati for a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, Younce said. She was on the phone, paying some bills, so she didn t answer. When the phone rang again five minutes later, she thought maybe the appointment was being canceled.
Ashland Times Gazette
ASHLAND - Five people stood waiting in the parking lot of Union Lofts Apartments on Thursday afternoon, bundled to stay warm in the wintry chill. Chatting, they looked to the northeast, toward Sugarbush Drive, and they listened for sirens.
It was Ashlee Younce s 16th birthday, and she and her family were waiting for a special celebration to begin.
Just around the corner, in the parking lot of the Ashland Home Depot, family friend Patrick Buckley of Elyria was watching as vehicles assembled to parade past Ashlee s home.
Ashlee has end-stage renal failure, and is waiting for a kidney transplant from a deceased donor. In the meantime, her mother, Becki Younce, takes her to Akron Children s Hospital three times a week for dialysis an hour to get there, four hours at the hospital and another hour home.