Transplants lead to love, much more for Manhattan couple

Chicago Sun Times | Ginger Brashinger



Ron and Sheila Egger smile at the next generation in their family, grandson Jackson Rambo, 2, takes their picture at their home in Manhattan. Ron and Sheila met when they were both getting kidney transplants and have since married. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-T

For Ron and Sheila Egger, marriage “the second time around” has been about much more than romance.

It’s been a real lifesaver.

Ron, 59, and Sheila, 60, of Manhattan, met in 1996 when Ron was undergoing his first kidney transplant and Sheila was being treated for her body’s rejection of a kidney/pancreas transplant she underwent in 1994.

“She remembers meeting me, but I don’t remember meeting her,” Ron Egger said. “I was really ill at the time.”

Ron’s mother, Mary Egger, took over where Ron couldn’t.

Ron, a divorced father of four children at the time, said his mother thought Sheila would be a great match for him.

“My mother would be out in the waiting room bending (Sheila’s) ear,” Ron said. “Obviously, I had no clue about what was going on.”

Sheila, then a divorced mother of three, knew exactly what her future mother-in-law had in mind.

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