ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 26, 1996 TAG: 9612260028
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: MARK KREWATCH (NEWPORT NEWS) DAILY PRESS
When Reba Twine was 10, she picked a pillow fight with her little sister, Teresa. She stood in front of the picture window in their Tyner, N.C., living room, and, when Teresa flung her pillow, smartly ducked.
Window smashed. Little sister spanked. Mission accomplished.
And two decades later, Teresa gives Reba her left kidney?
Now that's the Christmas spirit.
``I said, `You don't have to thank me, you don't have to give me anything,''' said Teresa, now Teresa Lewis, resting on the couch at her home Monday. ``I said, `In fact, we can still fight if you want to.'''
Teresa calls Reba her ``sister, friend and confidante,'' and they still laugh about the older sibling's bygone impishness.
Reba was diagnosed with lupus nine years ago. Last year, doctors put her on dialysis.
Only two years apart in a family of 18 children, the women, now 33 and 31, shared a bedroom, clothes and a bicycle while growing up. Later they shared a dorm at Elizabeth City State College.
Last week, Teresa gave what Reba called ``the best Christmas I've ever had'': a kidney.
``If I didn't get another thing for Christmas for the rest of my life, it wouldn't matter,'' Reba said Monday from East Carolina University's Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville, N.C.
Lloyd and Katherine Twine raised a tight, deeply Christian family, Teresa said, and over the years they've stayed close. Teresa and a brother came to Newport News, four others traveled to New York and one found a home in Atlanta. The rest are still in North Carolina, where the entire family gets together four times a year. After they watched dialysis sap Reba's strength, keeping her from the tennis courts and her job as an accountant, they called a family meeting July 4, Teresa said.
Reba was already on the organ donor list, but the list was long. With 34 kidneys right there, the family couldn't see waiting. One by one, they began getting tested.
Four siblings were only a questionable match. A fifth was solid, but her doctor recommended against the procedure because she suffered from bronchial problems. Teresa, the next shot, got her results three weeks ago. The news was what she wanted - compatible and healthy.
``I think I was the chosen one - thank you, Lord - I think it was meant to be me,'' she said.
Still carrying staples in her side, Teresa decided to forgo the annual Christmas trip to North Carolina on Wednesday. She stayed home with her husband, Archie, her 8-year-old son, Joshua, and her 15-month-old daughter, Jessica.
Normally, skipping out on the family would be a disappointment, she said, but this year is too special. The gold-trimmed tree in her own living room and dinner with the next-door neighbors will do just fine.
Last year, with a new daughter, Teresa said, she didn't think Christmas could get any better, but she was wrong.
``The gift of life, you know - what better time of year to give,'' she said. ``I've always wanted to make a difference. I guess I finally earned my chance.''
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