No Moss Collected – Winnipeg Free Press

It's safe to say that Alan Small was like a rock when it came to live concerts and the love of Bob Dylan's music.

Or as Small himself puts it: wie ein rolender stein.

That's because Small, who died May 3 at the age of 56 of a heart attack while returning from a vacation in Vancouver, wasn't just a fan of Dylan and his music — with more than 40 live shows under his belt, you can tell. was a fan of the singer – he also knew German well.

While this was a part of Small's private life, what he did in public affected many people in the community.

He was a reporter and editor at a small newspaper Free press For 26 years. During those years, he wrote stories, gave concerts, edited copy, decorated pages, and even wrote editorials on current issues of the day.

For several years, his colleague Jill Wilson sat at the desk behind him.

It turned out to be a blessing for Tiny.

Little started developing kidney problems in 2006. For a while, a change in diet was necessary – he had to give up his favorite fast food, KFC, but eventually he needed dialysis. He devoted many hours each week to his home dialysis machine. Doctors told him it could be years before he could get a kidney transplant.

Sitting close to the little one, Wilson said he had heard and watched her medical history for twelve years. He realized he had two healthy kidneys and could donate one to a long-time colleague.

“I was stunned—to say I was speechless would be an understatement,” Small wrote of his reaction to Wilson's offer after receiving his kidney.

“Kidney? From Jill? For me? What could I have done to deserve this mercy? It was great.”

Small Kidney, acquired five years ago, is not directly from Wilson; his organ would have been rejected. But he knew he could still help as a living donor in the kidney matching program. A database of other incompatible donor pairs across Canada was added to find matches between her and Junior. Eventually, he donated to a stranger in another town, and Small received a kidney from another stranger in the chain of donors and recipients.

“They said it would take three or four years to make the circuit, but they called me a few days later,” Wilson recalled recently. “It was something I could do to help.

“Because of that, I'd like to think he's had a good life these past few years.”

Small's brother, Dan, said the kidney disease “came on anyway.”

“He told me one day that he was working on the computer and it looked blurry,” Dan said. “So he went to the eye doctor, he couldn't see anything, but he put a 100-year-old blood pressure (machine) on his arm. He was on the upper side, so he went to intensive care, where it took three to four days to lower his blood pressure. At that time, his eyes came back, but they knew he had kidney problems.”

Dan said it was “a very difficult time for him” when his brother went on dialysis. He said Small may have only lived another five years with a donor kidney, but he hasn't been on dialysis in five years.

“He was very happy.”

“What happened to him was tragic, but there were five good years in between. He was healthy.”

Small grew up with his two older brothers on a mixed grain and livestock farm near Radway, Alta., population 231, about an hour northeast of Edmonton.

Although he didn't grow up to be a farmer, his father steered him toward a degree in agricultural economics at the University of Alberta.

Little's brother remembers seeing signs of a possible media career in his future – he would commentate play-by-play for home-grown curling games – but it was at university when the journalism bug bit him.

In his spare time, Small began volunteering for the university's student newspaper. Gateway. He was the paper's sports editor for two years before joining Alberta report as a researcher.

From there, Kishi worked as a reporter for three years Morinville and District Gazette, after that Medical Hat Newsbefore moving to Winnipeg to join Winnipeg San Assistant news editor in 1997.

A year later Little joined Free press as a copy editor and never left. Most recently, he was in Arts & Life, where one of his latest assignments was a four-star review of country superstar Luke Bryan's appearance at the Canada Life Center, recorded on his trusty iPad. Thoroughly covers the arts and music scene of Little Winnipeg, attracting international touring acts and local visitors alike.

In her free time, Tiny has never met a situation that she couldn't sum up with a short quote from her beloved. SCTV — played golf, curled, played in a trivia league and was heavily involved in fantasy baseball. He even attended the University of Manitoba part-time, earning a Bachelor of Arts in German Studies.

And he went to concerts.

Colleague Mike Sawatzki joined Small on many of them — often in the moment.

“One minute you're casually discussing the possibility of a Dylan show somewhere, and hours later Al's booked tickets and canceled travel plans,” Sawatzky said.

“You can drive 13 hours to Rockford, Illinois, after a Friday night shift to see Bob play the next night, and his immediate response is, 'We've got to do this.'”

According to Sawatzki, the more unique the destination and location, the better.

“It could be an amphitheater in Cincinnati or Milwaukee, a casino parking lot in Elizabeth, Indiana, a baseball stadium in Fargo, a hockey rink in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, or a basketball arena in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. (Big Bopper) Detour to honor Richardson in the cornfield north of Clear Lake.

Other musical favorites the little ones go to see are Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Steve Earle, the Allman Brothers Band and the Tedeschi-Trucks.

Sawatzki said Little had seen and heard Dylan's lyrical changes so many times that he could instantly recognize the lyrical changes, but he thought he was nowhere near Dylan's biggest fan.

“Al admits to being a 'fan' in Bob's world, whose fan base includes many fans who have seen hundreds of performances.”

Dr. Leroy Storsley, director of HSC Winnipeg's Living Kidney Donor Program, credits Small and Wilson with giving people hope and raising awareness.

“Last year, the paired kidney donation program reached 1,000 kidney transplants, including 66 Manitoba couples like Alan and Jill,” Storsley said. “This milestone would not have been possible without this collaborative program, without the kindness of living donors and willing recipients.

“By sharing their journeys to live donation free press, Alan and Jill opened up the process to people with honesty and humor.

“It can be difficult to start a conversation about living donation. Opportunities like these reveal what it's like to live with kidney disease and the wonderful gift that living kidney donation can offer.”

Wilson said the newspaper will never locate Small and that his colleagues will never forget him.

“He was a colleague, but more than that, he was a friend,” she said.

“His work here will be missed, but Al himself will be sorely missed. We shared an unspoken connection.”

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