By Greg Cowan
For the past 40 years, I’ve been looking into my neighbors windows in Grand Rapids and the surrounding communities. Not in a bad way!
Since 1984, when my wife Julie and I started our business, Western Michigan Glass Block, we’ve had the good fortune of having hundreds – it may be thousands by now – of our neighbors trusting us to install new glass block windows and walls, along with basement egress windows, vinyl windows and insulation. We have been blessed to meet so many very nice people, and count many of our customers as old friends.
Our hearts are truly filled with joy at the many memories we have made over the years. We have a great business, doing work we enjoy, and helping our neighbors make their homes safer and more comfortable. Life is good!
Then, about five years ago, life threw me a curveball. My doctors diagnosed me with something called fatty liver disease. It was serious – without a liver transplant they did not expect me to live more than 10 years. We cried a little, raged a little, and then set out to do what we could to turn that diagnosis upside down.
We kept my health issues pretty quiet. We viewed my malady as a curable disease, even if the cure required a complicated transplant operation! I continued to work at WMGB while, at the same time, working with the amazing people at the Henry Ford Transplant Institute in Detroit.
Unfortunately, my liver was degrading at a faster rate than doctors anticipated. Now there was some urgency to the transplant process. Then, a miracle occurred. In early February 2025, just two days before the Super Bowl, doctors from Henry Ford called to let me know they had found a liver donor. While that liver did not meet the strict “match” standards, another was found shortly thereafter. Within 48 hours I was on the operating table for a long, technically challenging operation.
I am writing this just one week after the surgery, which was deemed a total success. I still have a long recovery ahead, but I have the support of my amazing family and countless friends. There is no doubt in my mind that my “angel” donor has given me the gift of many more years of life. There are no adequate words to thank them.
Why am I sharing this with you now? Well, I may be out of the office and away from the jobsites for a little while so that I can heal up. (But you can be sure I’ll be on the phone and sending emails!) Luckily, WMGB and all our customers are in good hands with my best friend and longtime business partner, Julie, running the show.
One good thing to come out of this experience is that we are going to be accelerating our business succession plan. We have long known that our daughter, Emily, would eventually be taking over WMGB – she is more than capable and knows the business inside and out. Now she’ll be stepping in and stepping up over the next several months, continuing the legacy of great work and fair dealing that we’ve always made part of how we do business.
A final word: If you have not checked off that box for “organ donor” on your driver’s license, please do so. I have learned how incredibly important it is, and how many peoples’ lives can be saved by this selfless and generous act.
