Travis Williams slept in a chair for five nights while his parents were in surgery in May 2010. Long stays in the hospital are not out of the normal for the junior in biological sciences, but this series of nights was different.

Travis’ father, Robert “Bookie” Williams, was due for a second kidney transplant. After 21 years since Bookie’s mother donated one of her kidneys to save her son, Bookie’s wife, Joni, decided to give one of hers to save her husband.

“I got out of school for the summer on a Monday morning, rushed home and they went to the hospital Tuesday,” Travis said. “I wasn’t going to leave. It was a family affair.”

Travis didn’t refer to just the surgery as a family affair. Before Travis was born, his father has been coping with diabetes, and rather than tearing the Williams family apart, they’ve come together to care for each other.

The Williams are Chapel Hill locals, and Bookie started working as a construction manager after leaving college due to complications with his diabetes. His disease was under control, but five years after he and Joni married, Bookie stepped on a nail while at work. He walked on the nail all day and didn’t realize it was lodged in his foot until that evening. Loss of sensation in the extremities is a side effect of diabetes, with high blood glucose levels that damage tissue, especially blood vessels and nerves. For Bookie, this incident was the start of a series of problems.

“I cleaned out the wound, but within a week, it got worse,” Bookie said. “It was badly infected. The thought of it still haunts me.”

The Williams family left for the hospital and upon arriving, Dr. George Johnson informed Bookie that he’d have to operate fast-and within an hour Bookie was in the OR, getting his right foot amputated.

“It’s kinda funny, but they don’t mean just foot when they say foot amputation,” Bookie said. “They mean below the kneecap.”

“We lived in fear about the other leg for the longest time,” Joni said.

As Travis grew up, he accustomed himself to his father’s unpredictable health. Travis calls his father “Chief.” He said it’s out of respect, since he said his father never complains. Jokingly, Travis said his family is far from ordinary.

“There are times, like when we’re walking out of a restaurant, and people will just stare, like my dad’s an alien of some sort,” Travis said. “It’s always been that way, with the struggles of diabetes, but that’s normal for us. Chief is a fighter. I’ve played basketball all my life, and he’d never miss a game.”

After losing his first leg, Bookie feared he’d miss Travis’ childhood. According to Travis, Bookie did what he could to be the active father he wanted to be.

“Travis is the reason I get up and go,” Bookie said. “I wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for my son and my family.”

Over time, Bookie’s health worsened, and in Oct. of 2008, doctors had to amputate his left leg. He wasn’t able to recover fully with his new prosthetic leg until June of 2009.

“I’ve never been much of a complainer, but what the heck,” Bookie said. “Pain don’t bother me too bad.”

In addition to “Chief,” Travis calls his father a warrior, and whenever Bookie’s in pain, he’s shrugged it off. Unless it’s excruciating, Bookie won’t bring it up, according to Travis. In May of 2010, Bookie’s kidney, the one his mother donated, started to fail. The discomfort became apparent.

“I got 21 years out of my mother’s kidney-that’s a long time for transplants,” Bookie said. “It goes to show how strong and great she is. She brought me into the world and gave me my second life.”

Joni gave Bookie his third life, and in May of 2010, both underwent surgery. Joni said she was worried, knowing she wouldn’t be conscious while Bookie was in surgery.

“That was the hardest part…it was the morning we checked in, we had our families, and the preacher and Travis was in the waiting room,” Joni said.

Joni stayed in the hospital for a week after donating her kidney. Compared to her husband, her recovery took longer, considering her reduction in renal function. After waking up from anesthesia, Bookie said he could feel the new life his wife gave him.

“I was feeling so good after the surgery, since I went in feeling so bad,” Bookie said. “It was tough for her, ’cause she was feeling good going in, and coming out a kidney short ain’t a great feeling. I was bouncing around and told her she looked beautiful and she told me to shut it. She’s been my best friend, my wife, my soul mate and my nurse. She’s never flinched.”

After leaving the hospital, Travis started to rethink what he wanted to do with his life, career wise. He was playing basketball and studying at Montreat College, a small liberal arts college in Virginia, and once Bookie fell his with double pneumonia in December of 2010, Travis decided a career in medicine was his vocation.

“When your family is in hospitals all the time, you get a taste of great doctors and not-so-great doctors,” Travis said. “Seeing the impact it can have on a family, I knew this is something I want to do.”

While Bookie was sick with pneumonia in both lungs, an experience he considered to be his lowest and most disheartening, Travis saw part of the movie Patch Adams while waiting in the hospital. The film of Dr. Hunter Doherty Adams intrigued Travis to investigate whether his story was true or not, and after reading Adams’ biography, Travis was inspired to write to the doctor after his father went back into the hospital from an infection during Thanksgiving of 2011.

“When I got some time off over winter break, I hand wrote a letter on why I want to be a doctor and what I’ve been through with my dad,” Travis said. “A week later he sent me a letter back with his other book. It was encouraging. He’s crazy, but inspiring.”

The UNC hospital has come to be the Williams family’s second home, and it has become their second family too. Clara Neyhart, a nephrology nurse clinician, has been Bookie’s nurse when he’s had kidney problems. Just like the Williams, Neyhart is a Chapel Hill local.

“I met Bookie after his mother gave him his first transplant,” Neyhart said. “They’re an extraordinary family.”

Neyhart works under Dr. Ronald Falk, Bookie’s nephrologist and close friend who took care of Bookie’s father before he passed away from kidney disease. Neyhart said the family has a long history of struggle with diabetes, but she’s uplifted by their support for each other.

“We’ve all tried to support Travis along the way, as we know it’s been tough on the family,” Neyhart said. “He had some frightening things to see, both with Bookie’s health and his grandfather passing away, but their family is strong.”

Travis said that strength comes from his mother’s devotion to his father and from his father’s stubbornness. Bookie jokes it’s what’s kept him around for so long. But it’s a daily struggle. Bookie can experience insulin reactions, or hypoglycemia, when his blood sugar plummets and he falls into a state of stupor. Bookie calls it a never ending battle.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” Bookie said. “But I’ve received a lot of love and support. I take things day by day, and today happens to be a good day. I’ve got Joni and Travis here with me, so I’m not going to complain. We’ll see about tomorrow.”