Usher thankful for new kidney after transplant
Lavelt Hill was going to work Game 7. If the Memphis Grizzlies had somehow beaten Golden State one more time, if last year's Western Conference semifinals had returned to Fedexforum, he was going to be there. Standing right behind the Grizzlies bench, on the steps leading between Sections 103 and 104 to the floor level.
Then, at 5 a.m. the next morning, he still would have shown up at the hospital for the surgery that saved his life.
Hill tells it this way, as if the actual story isn't incredible enough. As if a kidney transplant, made possible because his younger sister donated her kidney to him, 23 years after he got a kidney from his younger brother, needed a game attached to it to resonate with everyone.
But being at the games matters so much to him. Never more so than the past couple years, when his failing health often wouldn't allow it.
You might have heard of Hill by this point. He's the beloved Fedexforum usher who became a beacon of hope during the pandemic.
When he was forced to go on dialysis due to his kidney issues, he had to stop working. So Grizzlies season ticket holder Adrian Shavers started a Gofundme account on Hill's behalf, once he noticed Hill's absence. It eventually spurred a who's who of the community to come together in support of a man who had worked darn near every Grizzlies game since the team arrived in town and played at The Pyramid.
Former Grizzlies player Jamychal Green was the first prominent name to draw attention to the cause, donating $2,000. Marc Gasol then donated $5,000. The wives of Mike Conley, team president Jason Wexler and General Manager Zach Kleiman each donated. Ja Morant's mother, Jamie, donated.
Brevin Knight donated. So did Elliot Perry. Even Bongo Lady chipped in. Owner Robert Pera donated more than anybody else — $10,000.
Eventually, nearly $70,000 had been raised for Hill, by the same people he missed seeing so badly during that time.
“It was just overwhelming,” Hill said. “I never would have thought, even with all the players that have come and gone, some of the ex-players and even for the team owner to step up, it was mind-blowing to me. I get emotional talking about it sometimes.”
But the truly amazing part of this is what happened behind the scenes.
Hill hadn't told his siblings what he was going through. He instead began dialysis for six months and signed up for the transplant list. It was his mother who took it upon herself to inform the family of Hill's deteriorating condition. That's when his sister knew she had to help.
Cassandra Mayes saw her brother suffering, and “I really didn’t need to think twice about it,” she said.
There was, however, another unforeseen complication. In September 2021, their mother died suddenly.
She too was on dialysis like her son. They even went to the same facility. Hill would go Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday each week. His mother would go Monday, Wednesday and Friday. What Hill didn’t know, however, is that his mother also had cancer at the time. She kept it from him —just like he kept his new kidney issues from the family — not wanting to add to his concerns.
“Then she contracted COVID,” Hill said, “so her system, it just couldn’t fight it all.”
Thanksgiving last year was particularly hard. It was the family’s most important get-together every year, and they gathered at their mother’s home. Complications, both emotional and physical, had kept Hill and Mayes from going under the knife for their kidney transplant. But they grew even closer amidst that pain.
And by last May, Hill and Mayes had the all-clear.
Hill even returned to his post at Fedexforum before the procedure, right in time for the Grizzlies’ playoff run. The transplant was a success. There have been no rejections of the kidney thus far, which is actually remarkable given the circumstances.
Research indicates siblings typically have a 25% chance of being an exact match for a kidney transplant, and a 50% chance of being a half match. Hill ended up getting two different working kidneys from two different siblings.
“There’s a sister between us and she’s already said, if push comes to shove, ‘I’m next in line,’ ” said Hill, the oldest of four children.
“My mother is watching over us,” added Mayes, “and my brother is still with us.”
To the delight of everyone at Fedexforum, be it during Grizzlies games or Tigers’ games.
Joe Newman, the usher who took over Hill’s spot when he couldn’t work, said every week last season fans would ask him, “What about Lavelt?”
“The people in his section love him,” Newman said.
So they all got to meet the sister who saved him a few weeks ago when Mayes attended the Grizzlies’ game against the Boston Celtics on Nov. 7. she got to meet
some of the people who were there for Hill when his livelihood temporarily got taken away. Hill took a picture, as a keepsake for what he had emerged from.
It is, on this Thanksgiving, a memory
far more enduring than a Game 7.
You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto