SPRINGDALE, Ark. — For 19 years, Jennifer Worthy has given her all to teaching the youth and like many teachers, she pushes through sick days and exhaustion to be there for her students. But in 2022, her health became dire.
"I answered my phone, and it was the nurse that told me to get to the emergency room right away. I asked if I could go home first or if I could I wait till the end of the day," recalls Worthy. "And she was like, 'absolutely not.' So I went straight to the emergency room."
Worthy was told she was in end stage kidney failure. She went into emergency surgery and would need a kidney transplant.
"It was the most humbling thing that has probably ever happened to me," Worthy shared.
For a year, Worthy would go through dialysis treatments and the process of getting on the transplant waiting list. But as fate would have it, her new kidney was close to home.
"I didn't really think about it at the time. It just felt like it was my responsibility and something that I was more than willing to do," said Ally Passmore, Worthy's little sister and kidney donor.
Passmore, also a fourth-grade teacher, said she remembers seeing her big sister after the surgery.
"I remember going up and seeing her for the first time and being wheeled in there. She looked tired and was hurting, but she just had a sparkle in her eye and was so excited. So, as soon as I saw her, I was like, 'anything else from here on out, I can handle it.'"
For the next few months, Worthy was in recovery. Once the new school year started, however, no sickness would stop her from getting in the classroom and bonding with a new crop of students.
"I remember being able to be on a Zoom, meet with her, and see how she was. We had these journals, and we could write to her. She would write back and give us, like, stickers and stuff," former student Jolee O'Kelley said.
When Worthy finally got back to the classroom strong and healthy, O'Kelley said she wouldn't have had it any other way.
"She's just a really kind and generous and beautiful person. You would have to be really lucky to be able to be her student, because she's really kind of nice."
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