By: PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer
OCEANSIDE -- When Karen and Gene Wos see their son Brian's portrait making its way down Colorado Boulevard as part of the 119th Rose Parade, it will be a tribute not just to his life, but also to the good work he did after a motorcycle accident claimed his life.
"We miss our son like there's no tomorrow, but, to be able to see what he has done, it's just a real gift," Karen Wos said.
At 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 4, 2006, Brian Wos' new Kawasaki motorcycle veered off Highway 76 west of South Mission Road. The 19-year-old rider suffered a severe, and eventually fatal, head injury, but the accident left most of his vital organs intact. Karen Wos said she talked with her son about organ donorship before the accident, and he had said he wanted to give as much as possible.
"His response was, 'Well, if I'm done with it, why not pass it on?' " she said. "When he was pronounced (dead), we did not have to make that decision. We felt like we were carrying out his wishes."
Wos is one of 40 organ donors to be commemorated with 2-foot "floragraph" portraits on the 2008 Donate Life America float that will participate in the Rose Parade on Jan. 1. The float is designed to inspire more organ donorship.
Karen Wos said her son's organ donations helped seven recipients, including 54-year-old Danny Kohler.
Kohler, who lives in Cherry Valley near San Bernardino, said the kidney and pancreas donations he received from Brian have allowed him to escape nightly 10-hour dialysis sessions and regular insulin injections necessary to fight his inherited Type 1 diabetes.
"We have Brian's picture up on our piano," Kohler said. "He changed my whole life."
Kohler said that kidney and pancreas transplants usually take at least 24 hours to begin functioning normally. But he said tests showed that Brian's donations began working immediately.
Karen Wos said her son was always the kind of guy who did not want to wait for tomorrow.
"That's Brian. Why wait 24 hours? Why not get going right away?" she said.
Wos traveled to Pasadena on Dec. 1 to help create her son's floragraph. Rose Parade rules specify that all materials used in float decoration be natural, so paint on canvas was out. Instead, a portrait is created using crushed seeds, coffee and even Cream of Wheat glued to flat cardboard.
A line drawing of Brian was sketched on the backing and the natural materials were glued on top to create a blended and textured design.
"The way they had it set up for the families, it was easy, it was almost like paint by numbers," she said.
The Wos family will travel to Pasadena on New Year's Day to see Brian's portrait in the parade. Danny Kohler and his wife, Sylvia, will meet Karen and Gene Wos there.
Kohler said he would not miss a chance to see Brian's portrait.
"We consider Gene and Kathy part of the family," he said. "My job now is just to live a good life and keep Brian's memory going as long as I can."
After the parade is over, the Wos family will get to keep Brian's portrait, which has been sprayed with a plastic coating to keep it together for years to come.
Meeting their son's organ recipients might seem a painful ordeal. But they said the experience has actually proven cathartic.
"They (the donors) thank us, but we tell them, no thank you, you're keeping a little piece of our son alive," Karen Wos said. "It just amazes me what my son has done."
Donate Life America encourages families to consider organ donation and maintains a organ donor database at www.donatelife.net.
Paul Sisson
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