A healing path — THS graduate from Class of 1984 returns home

Jenny Nix was just six years old when her father, Wayne, was diagnosed with kidney disease. Her sister, Kathy, was two.

“Dad was 30 when he was diagnosed with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD),” Jenny said.

Her mom, Sharon Nix, taught Spanish at Dundee Schools, while dad taught English and coached football at Tecumseh. The diagnosis threw the family into a sort of controlled crisis mode.

“It was a full-time job, taking care of Wayne,” Sharon remembers. “It was a busy time, I had to work and we tried to keep things as normal as we could. We wanted to make sure the kids got to their activities. We wanted them to have a normal life. And I think we accomplished that pretty much. They certainly learned a lot about the body.”

Wayne received dialysis three times a week for four hours, and the Nix family had the unit in their home. Sharon recalls that the girls were very helpful.

“It was a family effort,” she said. “We would watch TV together while Wayne was dialyzing,” she said. “It was a part of our life. We didn’t want the kids to suffer because of it in any way and I think they understood what was going on and did rather well in that regard.”

Having dialysis at home helped keep things normal, she said.

Wayne and Sharon met in an American Lit class at Adrian College. They married in 1964 and moved to Tecumseh in 1972 when Wayne landed a job at Tecumseh High School (THS). He was diagnosed in 1974 with medullary cystic kidney disease. Sharon remembers how supportive the community was throughout Wayne’s diagnosis and treatment.

“There were some cheerleaders who would come by when I had to take Wayne to dialyze,” she said. “They would take care of the girls. I never had to worry about anything.”

Jenny said she and her father had a good relationship while she was growing up.

“Dad and I had a good father/daughter relationship as I grew up, but we became far closer—good friends—when I was an adult, and we worked together to launch his idea for the RISE Program at the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan,” Jenny said.

The program was designed to help those who had gone through ESRD and either received transplants or were on dialysis to retrain for jobs that would be less stressful on their bodies.

“I helped him write the initial grant proposal and introduced him to the cause-related marketing folks at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals in New York, who funded the initial pilot program,” she said. “We traveled and spoke together at conferences over the next several years, and the Michigan program he created ended up going national.”

Wayne left teaching in 1991, following a second — and successful — kidney transplant. His activism on behalf of those with ESRD resulted in better care for dialysis and transplant patients but he didn’t live to see his daughter face the same diagnosis. He died in December 1999 from heart complications, a result of years of dialysis.

“I was diagnosed in 2009 at age 42, and had a very different journey in that I went from diagnosis to transplant in under six months, thanks to my incredibly generous living donor, Jim,” Jenny said. “I’m so grateful for Dad’s example, though, and all the things he taught me about how to thrive with this disease.”

Jenny graduated from THS in 1984, and headed to Michigan State to study journalism. After completing her degree, she traveled around the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, as well as New York,  San Francisco, and Taos. Her career has taken her from a small newspaper and radio station in upstate New York to National Public Radio.

Last May, Jenny  returned to the Mitten to care for her mother, who was seriously ill. In October, Jenny’s husband, Steve Leonard, joined her and the couple decided to make their home in Tipton.

“My mom still needs daily help and now Steve’s dad is living with us, so we are learning quite a bit about the great services available for Lenawee County seniors.”

The couple bought a farmhouse built in 1877 that is surrounded by several outbuildings, including an art studio barn and a woodworking shop.

“I’m calling this endeavor Project Roadhouse and I’ve been doing some research and outreach to see how this space and my skills might best be of service in the community,” she said. “We’re starting to settle into our elder-care routine, and I aim to launch some form of social practice project here this spring in Tipton.”

In recent years, she has focused on penning essays and social practice work on two projects, ModNomad Studio in Sausalito, Calif., and Project Minka in Taos, N.M. Prior to moving to the area, Jenny and Steve made their home in Taos. Jenny defines “social practice” as work that “exists in the space between journalism and activism, where we seek truth and come together to learn each other’s stories, and sparks are lit.”

Sharon said she and Wayne had “lots of good years.

“We had no expectations he would live even five years when we first got the diagnosis,” she said. “Then he lived 27 years.”

The year 2024 is a time for Jenny to mark milestones in her own life. She recently re-connected with her kidney donor and watched her mom come back from near death and Hospice to see the whole family on a healing path. It has been 25 years since her father died, it’s her 25th wedding anniversary, and 15 years since her kidney transplant. Sharon is happy to have her daughter back in town after 40 years.

“I have a certain amount of pride in how things worked out,” Sharon said. “There were challenges but you just keep moving on. There is a lot of strength that comes from God.”