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A Brave Heart

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While waiting for a new kidney,
Jodi Lutz quietly passes away.

candles, pewter

chamber sticks

• and blue/silver

both legs that made it difficult for
JULIE EDGAR
her to stand or walk. But she dealt
News Editor
with every crisis, said her mother,
he past year brought intense Miriam "Mimi" Lutz.
"She was my hero, that's for sure. I
happiness and great sadness
told her, you're the bravest thing I ever
to Jodi Lutz.
met. When the movie Braveheart came
The 28-year-old lost an
out, I said, 'That's you.'-Her spirit was
eye and found herself in a wheelchair
so strong, that even when she stopped
after her legs became too weak for her
breathing several times, she came out
• to walk. But she also moved into a
of it," she said.
new condominium that overlooked a
On the weekend of her death, Jodi
lake and was thrilled about it. And,
to Greektown with friends —
went
this week, she was scheduled to get an
and she had many.
artificial eye, her father, Dr. Richard
"Jodi had the ability to make
Lutz, said.
friends
very fast. She was a really good
Jodi, a graduate of West Bloom-
She felt for those in worse
person.
field High School, died in her sleep
shape
than
her. She enjoyed people;
on Sunday morning, Nov. 30, after a
she
enjoyed
going out. Her funeral
long battle with juvenile diabetes.
was
incredible
in terms of the volume
She was on a waiting list for a kidney,
of
people
from
different walks of life,"
but that could have taken up to three
Dr.
Lutz
said.
Jodi
also loved animals,
years.
including her two cats, who
have since found a home with a
veterinarian who formerly lived
near her.
Added Miriam Lutz, "She
just loved to go. She was very
limited, but she loved to go, to
eat out, to see people, even
with the loss of one eye. And
she was encouraging to other
sick people."
Although Jodi's illness kept
her in the hospital for extend-
ed stays over the years, she
never stopped making friends
or trying to work and go to
school. She enrolled at Oak-
land Community College
three times, studying until she
got sick again, and she worked
at her father's clinic when she
was feeling OK.
"She wanted to stay alive —
that was her main goal for the
last couple of years," Dr. Lutz
said. "Every time they cut her
or stuck her with another tube,
she came back. She was a good,
c- 3) Jodi Lutz loved people and animals.
brave soldier. She was tough."
Surviving Jodi are her mother and
Jodi, a member of Temple Beth El,
father; stepmother, Karen Lutz; an
was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes
uncle, David Korn; aunt and uncle,
when she was 11. She lost sight in
Judy
and Joel Lutz; her grandmothers,
one eye, which was removed two
Frances
Lutz and Ruth Korn; and good
months ago. During the last year, she
friend,
Helen
Safran.
developed diabetic neuropathy in

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