By Jeff Miller
Special to The Texas Catholic
As Albert Yzaquirre attended the 9 a.m. Mass at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Duncanville on the first Sunday in October with wife Elsa and mother-in-law Udelia Vasquez, feelings of gratitude and relief washed over him.
“It brought a peace over me that I was missing for a while,” he said.
It was the first time in months that Yzaquirre, 51, was able to attend in person at the parish where he grew up. He was diagnosed six years ago with kidney failure and told he needed a transplant. The procedure finally took place this August, months after a donor living in the Austin area was identified.
An easy decision
Incredibly, the donor also grew up at Holy Spirit. That person was more than simply a former parishioner.
“Albert was like my second brother,” said Maria Thomas, who had not seen Yzaquirre in years. “Despite not having talked to him in a long time, I have really fond memories of my childhood with him.”
Thomas — who was Maria Garcia when growing up in Duncanville — said the decision to donate was “easy and immediate.”
As students at Duncanville’s Reed Junior High, Yzaquirre and Maria’s older brother, Joe, became close friends.
“Albert was always at our house, especially during the summer,” Thomas said.
Yzaquirre recalled Joe and Maria’s parents, Jimmy and Shirley Garcia, teaching children’s faith formation classes at Holy Spirit.
Yzaquirre said he became discouraged soon after the 2018 diagnosis, drained by the dialysis treatments — three times a week, four hours each — while awaiting the identification of a donor.
“There were times I would tell my wife, ‘I’m done. I don’t care what happens,’” he said. “I stopped going to church for a couple months just because I was frustrated, felt things weren’t going my way. The devil gets in you. But after a while, I started doing prayers again, doing the rosary more, turned my life back over; and let His will be done.”
Thomas’ career took her away from Texas for 28 years, until two years ago. She joined the U.S. Navy at age 18 and spent 20 years traveling the world as a federal agent working criminal investigations for N.C.I.S. She was inspired to shift to working for the U.S. Army following the 2020 murder of Vanessa Guillen at what then was Fort Hood — now Fort Cavazos.
She said she wanted to return to Texas “and make a difference.”
The Yzaquirres have been married for nine years and recently moved from Cedar Hill to DeSoto. They have been greatly involved for years with Holy Spirit’s ACTS ministry, whose members became a treasured source of support throughout the ordeal.
“What helped in the journey was the Holy Spirit family, mainly the ACTS brothers and sisters,” Elsa said. “The ACTS community really pulled behind him and lifted us up in prayer.”
Albert and Elsa sought a matching donor through both the formal medical channels and social media. About two years ago, Elsa received a Facebook reply from Thomas asking for Albert’s blood type.
The good news — they were a match. The bad news — Yzaquirre had been unable to stay in shape while sick and was told early this year he’d need to lose 50 pounds before the transplant could be performed.
“Even with the change in eating, I couldn’t lose,” he said. Yzaquirre underwent a gastric-sleeve operation last March and became eligible for the kidney transplant.
But another factor later came into play related to Thomas. Her father was dealing with both heart issues and prostate cancer, which delayed her availability for donating.
In mid-July, both parties were ready to go.
Thomas, 48, drove from her home in Georgetown days before the two were admitted to Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Oak Cliff. After a weekday morning Mass at Holy Spirit, Yzaquirre was anointed by Holy Spirit’s pastor, Father Uche Aladi, and members of both families were given a private blessing by Father Aladi in the church’s chapel.
“The selfless generosity of Maria flows out of her belief in God, expressed in love for her neighbor,” Father Aladi said. “On the part of Albert, it is a recognition of divine providence that came to his rescue through Maria.”
Following the operation, Yzaquirre needed to avoid contact with crowds and was provided Holy Communion weekly through Holy Spirit’s service to the sick and homebound through the parish’s outreach ministry.
But he was finally able to make his return in early October, and thankful to do so.
Cutline for featured image: Albert and Elsa Yzaquirre praise the community support from Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Duncanville, where they are parishioners, for lifting their spirits during his medical crisis. The couple is pictured in their home in Desoto on Nov. 5. (MICHAEL GRESHAM/The Texas Catholic)
