Longtime friends, from left, Christine Stevens, Heather Kellogg, Molly Gray-Hooper and Julia Williamson will be in Florida this month when Gray-Hooper gives one of her kidneys to Stevens, while Kellogg and Williamson offer post-surgery support. Submitted photo
BETHEL — Molly Gray-Hooper is scheduled to have one of her kidneys removed Wednesday and given to her longtime friend Christine Stevens at a hospital in Florida.
Joining them are two others from the close-knit foursome who have been friends since the 1980s, Heather Kellogg and Julia Williamson, both of Woodstock, who will offer post-surgical support.
“I don’t think it was ever a question,” Kellogg said. “Even before we knew Molly was going to be the match, I think we all knew that we would go to support her. There was just sort of an understanding.”
Gray-Hooper, who lives in South Thomaston, met Williamson and Kellogg, who are distant cousins, while students at Telstar Middle School in Bethel. When Kellogg and Gray-Hooper transferred to Gould Academy in Bethel, they met Stevens, who lives in St. Augustine, Florida.
Since the 1980s, the four have been “more like sisters, than friends,” Gray-Hooper said.
During high school, they had many good times together mostly at Williamson’s house and at Lake Christopher in Woodstock where Williamson’s grandmother had a house and a boat.
“Chrissy moved away to Dover-Foxcroft but she would come back every summer and live with Julia and work in Locke Mills, so we could have the summers together,” Kellogg said. “We’d go to Mollyockett Day. Sunbathe on the docks . . . we just had fun, honestly.”
During the school year, they all played field hockey, and in their senior year, Stevens and Kellogg competed against each other when Dover-Foxcroft beat Telstar in the state championship.
After high school, they lived in different places, writing letters to each other weekly. As time went on, the ‘four peas in a pod’ began calling their meet-ups ‘pea-time’ and ‘pea weekends.’ They always made it a priority to see each other, sometimes traveling to Florida for spring break to see Gray-Hooper.
Kellogg and Stevens lived in Portland and attended the University of Southern Maine. Kellogg remembers her friend and roommate often feeling tired and off. Stevens was in her early 20s, her health was going downhill and no one knew why. Eventually, she was put on a waiting list for a new liver in Boston. After waiting a year, she had her transplant surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, when she was 23.
They were in each other’s weddings. They spent summer vacations together, met at concerts and celebrated the births of children and a grandchild together.
They were there for each other during sad times, too.
“When my dad passed away, the girls all showed up, Williamson said. The same with my grandmother.”
“It’s a relaxing time for us (when we get together) because we don’t have to worry about anything,” Kellogg said. “It’s free of all the goings on in the world. You see each other and you just step back in. We recognize that we have a special bond. We don’t take that for granted. You’re a mother, a wife, a parent, you’re a PTA member, a daughter, a sister but when we’re together, you’re just a friend. You’re a friend that’s not judged. It’s nice,” she said.
When they weren’t together, they were group texting every day.
In December 2021, Stevens told the others she needed a kidney and a donor.
“‘I don’t want you to feel obligated, it’s a huge commitment for you and your families,'” she said she told them.
They resoundingly responded that they’re family.
“I had the liver transplant 25 years ago,” Stevens said. “At the time, they said some day you’re probably going to need a kidney transplant because of the medications. It’s a vicious cycle. I’ve been dealing with slow failure for the past 10 years.
“I did all the testing, it was quite a process. I was finally approved in July of 2022,” she said.
Stevens and Kellogg are nurses who look at the labs reports and they know what’s happening.” They knew her kidneys were declining,” Gray-Hooper said.
By the time Stevens got the news, all four knew their blood types and knew that Gray-Hooper, who had Type O, would match. During the required medical testing and determination to assure she was psychologically and financially ready for the commitment, Gray-Hopper said she never doubted she would pass.
Her family supports her, too. “They love her like an aunt and want her to be around for a long time,” Stevens said.
“Organ donation saved Chrissy’s life and it’s going to again,” Kellogg said.
Gray-Hooper will leave the hospital within a day or two, while Stevens will stay longer. They will recuperate at Stevens’ house in Saint Augustine. Her husband, Chris, and mother, Linda, will be there, as will Gray-Hooper’s husband.
“I will be there in my nurse role,” Kellogg said. “But more than that I’ll be there for support. Emotional support. And to do absolutely anything either of them wants us to do. We’ll clean house, mop floors, make meals, make sure they are comfortable.”
Stevens, who is worried about the pain, said it will be good to have her friends nearby. “There are all kinds of things I have to do after the surgery. It sounds like hell. Most definitely it’s going to make it better, tolerable (to have them there). They are all so funny,” she said.
“I’m extremely grateful for Molly’s gift and my best friends. There really are no words,” Stevens said.
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