ST. PETERS, Mo. – For 75 years, the National Kidney Foundation in St. Louis has fought to ensure quality care for all and aided those battling kidney disease and their families.

But what happens when the situation takes a turn for the worse? And an outcome no one can prepare for reveals itself?

Those were questions Erika Armstrong and her father, Steve Merritt, who were forced to answer about brother and son Douglas Merritt.

“There was a weekend where he wasn’t feeling well and he called his doctor,” Erika explained. “They told him to go to the Emergency Room right away. Upon getting to the Emergency Room, they found out that he was in kidney failure.”

Doug was admitted and later began outpatient dialysis treatments, where he experienced an allergic reaction and was without oxygen for 45 minutes. 

Paramedics were able to bring him back, but the devastating damage had been done. 

Doug’s family was given 36 days to say goodbye.

“Family got to all be around him,” Erika said. “I believe God gave that to us.”

Struggling with the grief that enveloped their family, Steven attended a National Kidney Walk to find solace among others. 

Instead, he found a problem.

“There wasn’t a place for Doug,” Erika explained. “There wasn’t a place for families like ours.”

Steve and Erika went to the National Kidney Foundation and said something had to be done.

Erika told FOX 2, “I got a hold of one of the ladies at the Foundation and we went in and met with her and right there right then, he (Doug) had an idea to create a Memorial Wall.”

The National Kidney Foundation loved their idea, so Steve and his brother, Bob, got to work. 

They built a memorial wall and donated it to the National Kidney Foundation to pay respect to those lost in the fight against kidney disease. This memorial allows the community to share each other’s burdens and comfort those in mourning.

In regard to the wall, Juliette McCarthy, the Program Manager at the National Kidney Foundation, told FOX 2, “As we’ve seen the wall take its different iterations, we just see people gravitating towards it and seeing the space it brings other people to celebrate those that they’ve lost to kidney disease. It’s had such an incredible impact on the community.”

While Doug may no longer be here, his memory is now forever enshrined into the wall, providing a light of fellowship in the darkness of kidney disease. 

If this sounds like a space those and their loved ones need, there is a Kidney Walk at Westport Plaza on Sunday, March 23. Details can be found here.