+
upworthy
Family

Touching video shows dad finding out his anonymous kidney donor is actually his daughter

She had kept it a secret for eight months.

kidney donation

John had no idea his daughter Delayne was his kidney donor.

Many of us would do anything to help a close loved one. But many of our loved ones, god bless ‘em, often refuse to take our help.

Perhaps this is why Delayne Ivanowski, who goes by @delayne_i on TikTok, secretly donated a kidney to her father John, and her video of him finding out is capturing millions of hearts online.

According to CBS News outlet KMOV4, John was diagnosed with an immunoglobulin A (IgA) deficiency, causing his immune system to attack his kidneys. For over a year, he had spent three to five hours a day hooked up to a dialysis machine. Wanting her father to have a better quality of life, Delayne wanted to offer her kidney immediately.

John, however, refused. “I’m like, ‘You’re too young, you’ve got a long time to be here and my time’s limited’,” he told News 4.


Not taking no for an answer, Delayne contacted a coordinator and got some tests done. After becoming an approved donor, she kept her secret safe for eight months leading up to the surgery.

And then, transplant day came and went, which culminated in this beautiful moment:

@delayne_i watch my dad find out that I was his anonymous kidney donor after keeping it a secret for 8 months 🥹 grab a tissue! ##fyp##kidneydonor ♬ original sound - Delayne

As soon as his daughter walks through the door, John is overcome with emotion.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Delayne reassures him.

Understandably, people were moved by the clip.

“The gratefulness yet worry in his eyes [is] so sad yet so beautiful,” one person commented.

“It's truly such a beautiful story of love and sacrifice. We hope they both get well and strong soon!” said another.

Many could understand why Delayne had to remain anonymous. One person wrote, "It's true, most parents would never take an organ from their child. Just in case something ever happened to them."

Another added, "He wouldn't have taken it if he had known."

Delayne posted the video partially in hopes of raising enough money to pay for her father’s transplant surgery. According to her onscreen text, if 6,000 people donated only $1, that would cover the cost.

If you’d like to donate, you can find their GoFundMe page here.

True

After over a thousand years of peaceful relations, European semi-superpowers Sweden and Switzerland may finally address a lingering issue between the two nations. But the problem isn’t either country’s fault. The point is that the rest of the world can’t tell them apart. They simply don’t know their kroppkakor (Swedish potato dumpling) from their birchermüesli (a Swiss breakfast dish).

This confusion on the European continent has played out in countless ways.

Swedish people who move to the United States often complain of being introduced as Swiss. The New York Stock Exchange has fallen victim to the confusion, and a French hockey team once greeted their Swiss opponents, SC Bern, by playing the Swedish National Anthem and raising the Swedish flag.

Skämtar du med mig? (“Are you kidding me?” in Swedish)

Keep ReadingShow less

Fowl Language by Brian Gordon


Brian Gordon is a cartoonist. He's also a dad, which means he's got plenty of inspiration for the parenting comics he creates for his website, Fowl Language (not all of which actually feature profanity).

He covers many topics, but it's his hilarious parenting comics that are resonating with parents everywhere.

"My comics are largely autobiographical," Gordon tells me. "I've got two kids who are 4 and 7, and often, what I'm writing happened as recently as that very same day."

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash

Meeting a new sibling can go either way, but this big brother's reaction was the sweetest.

We've all seen our fair share of older-sibling-meets-new-baby videos, which are generally pretty darn adorable. But once in a while, one comes along that socks us square in the heart and has us desperately reaching for a tissue.

Brace yourselves, friends, because this is one video that truly requires a tissue warning.

Shared by @brianaarielle89 on TikTok, the video shows a preschooler dressed up in a dinosaur costume entering a hospital room to meet his newborn sibling for the first time. He asks, "Mommy, where is Hudson?" and is guided over to the cot where his baby brother is bundled.

At first, he walks right past him. But then he turns, sees him and simply stares for a few seconds.

Keep ReadingShow less
More

Ever wonder why people 100 years ago died so much younger? It's these 14 reasons.

1796. That's when we invented vaccines. An English doctor named Edward Jenner took incredible risks to try to rid his world of smallpox. Because of his efforts and the efforts of scientists like him, the only thing between deadly diseases like the ones below and extinction are people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. Don't be that parent.

FACT CHECK TIME! This article originally appeared on 11.21.14 and this infographic is based on data from 2012.

Unfortunately, because of the misinformation from the anti-vaccination movement, some of these diseases have trended up in a really bad way over the past several years.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Owner of plus-size dress shop gifts $700 prom dress to 'shy' teen after watching her light up

Creating moments like these is why she opened her store in the first place.

@juicybodygoddess/TikTok

Elyse Monroe found the perfect dress, then found out it costs nothing.

Adolescence is a harrowing time for body image and self-esteem all around, but few milestones are as universally daunting as finding a prom dress. Whether it’s due to budget constraints, not being able to find a dress that fits, or both, what should be a fun event is often viscerally dreaded.

This was certainly the case for Summer Lucille. Lucille told Today.com that growing up, “if you weren’t skinny, there weren’t many options, and it was devastating for me because I’ve always loved fashion.”

She recalled, “I went to my prom looking like a church lady in a suit dress with a jacket because it was the only thing that fit. It was a very sad period in my life.”

Keep ReadingShow less

The fireman William Ziegler of New Orleans, Louisiana.

After you're gone, people will probably forget the exact things you said to them while you were alive, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

Unfortunately, when people write obituaries that sum up a person's life they're often just a chronological list of factual details of their lives such as where they lived, where they worked, and how many children they had.

While those facts are important, they don't really explain the type of person the deceased was or how they made people feel. An obituary for fireman William Ziegler of New Orleans, Louisiana has attracted a lot of attention for how it hilariously summed up the life of a man who was a real raconteur.

Keep ReadingShow less


Asexuality is often misunderstood.

In general, it's believed to be the absence of any romantic interest, but asexual identity actually means that a person is not sexually attracted to anyone. Romantic feelings and the strength of those feelings can vary from person to person.

Currently, about 1% of adults have no interest in sex, though some experts believe that number could be higher. For a long time, information on asexuality was limited, but researchers recently have found information that gives us more knowledge about asexuality.

Being asexual can be tough, though — just ask the artists from Empathize This.

To demonstrate, they put together a comic on asexuality, defining it as a sexual orientation, not a dysfunction:

Keep ReadingShow less