Wheaton school librarian steps up with life-changing generosity

In a rare proof of commitment, a school librarian in Wheaton is donating one of her kidneys to her best friend’s father.

Kelsey Krumme, director of the library learning center at Emerson Elementary School, is donating her left kidney to Joe Howard of Newark, who has been taking dialysis treatments since November 2023 after kidney failure in 2020.

“It’s my best friend’s dad, and I want to know that he’s OK, so she’s OK,” said Krumme, in her second year at Emerson after three years teaching third grade at Whittier Elementary School in Wheaton.

The transplant will take place on May 1 at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

A Plano resident, Krumme has known Howard’s daughter, Alexis, for nearly 20 years. They’ve been fast friends since attending Yorkville Middle School together, graduating from Yorkville High School in 2011.

“I think it’s amazing how God will put somebody in your life years and years before that will actually meet a purpose and a reason years and years later that we have no idea about,” said Joe Howard, 51.

“I think that sometimes things happen, and we don’t see the bigger picture.”

An Aurora native who lives on a farm in Newark — some chickens, goats and a pig, “petting zoo type of stuff,” he said — Howard runs his business, Yorkville Heating and Air Conditioning, in semiretirement when he’s not undergoing four-hour dialysis treatments on alternating days at a Yorkville clinic.

Howard has persisted through a tough stretch.

In 2019 alone, he had open-heart surgery, rebuilt his business after a fire, and lost one of his four children, Brandon, to a motorcycle accident.

That preceded a divorce and hospitalization due to COVID, which nearly took his life, Howard said.

Plus, of course, the kidney failure.

“It’s been a rough go, but I’m not a dweller,” he said. “I just keep plugging along.”

“I think he just turned into an ‘It-is-what-it-is’ guy, and he’s positive,” said Alexis Howard, a professional photographer who moved into her father’s house to help out.

Through their daily phone conversations, Krumme kept abreast of the situation.

After Joe Howard started dialysis, Krumme went to social media to investigate the possibility of finding a kidne donor. Meanwhile, after a six-month process, Howard’s father, Rod Peterson, was ruled out as a match.

Unbeknownst to the family, Krumme sought to determine if she was a match by contacting Howard’s medical team at the University of Illinois-Chicago,

After a series of tests, Howard’s physicians told her she was a perfect match. In early January, UIC approved the transplant.

Krumme devised an excuse to come to the Howards’ house for dinner and to watch television. When the time was right, she broke the news to Alexis, Joe, and his father.

Krumme would be the donor.

“We didn’t believe her at first,” Alexis Howard said.

“I think I sat there for a while with my mouth open, trying to absorb it,” said Joe Howard, who felt shock, concern, guilt, and — after a long, emotional conversation — immense gratitude.

“I consider it nothing less than a miracle,” he said.

This will be her first surgical procedure, but Krumme hasn’t had time to get nervous.

“Maybe ignorance is bliss,” said Krumme, approved by Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 for a leave of absence. She will return to Emerson for the 2025-26 school year.

“I have not felt any nerves yet about the surgery because I’m so focused on my school stuff,” she said. “I don’t want to leave anyone hanging.”

It takes about eight weeks to recover. But anticipating years added to Joe Howard’s life, Krumme looks forward to another one of the annual national park trips she shares with Alexis Howard each summer.

“What do you say to someone who is giving your dad life but is also your best friend?” Alexis Howard said. “There’s not enough gratitude for that. She’s a hero to our whole family. She’s given us time with my dad.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250420/news/wheaton-school-librarian-steps-up-with-life-changing-generosity/