Bob Gance, author

02/20/2026

February 20th, 1990…the first day of my second life. My little sister, Rita, gave me her left kidney. This picture was taken exactly one year later and I am beyond grateful to report that it is still peeing up a storm. Seventeen years later we lost her to ovarian cancer. She was fifty-one. My book tells my story…and hers.

01/31/2026

Just celebrated my 78th birthday. Amazing. My kidneys failed when I was 41. Here's the story.

01/20/2026

This is my grandfather’s book, and it is such a great book. It’s so amazing to read his book, about the history of what makes my family. I have heard these stories many times, and it has become a big part of my life. We celebrate all the things, the joys and sorrows of these experiences every year, grateful to be a part of these experiences. Kidney day, as mentioned in the epilogue, is still celebrated to this day, with all of our family and friends, as well as Rita’s birthday, with dancing, laughter and love. I know how hard he worked on this book, for many years, and it is such a joy to hear others feel like they can relate and connect with this book. Me and my sister read this book, and enjoyed it, it is such a great book, for all ages. I hope you choose to read and enjoy this book! 💖

12/14/2025

Here's an idea for a Christmas present for someone who likes to read: my book, "Keeping a Piece of Her...The Joys and Sorrows of My Second Life". "...a moving story of love and courage...Full of anecdotes. wry humor, and deep feeling.... It is not only enlightening but inspiring to read this well-crafted, lovingly immersive account". - Jim McGlinn. professor emeritus, UNC Asheville.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her+bob+gance&crid=2AM30KEO251

10/18/2025

Three weeks in France. Hiking in Chamonix, a twenty-five-mile bike ride around beautiful Lake Annecy, Mass at Notre Dame, Basilica Sacre Coeur in Montmartre, magical Rouen, Mt. St. Michel, D-Day Beaches, and the American Cemetery in Normandy, Loire Valley chateaus, and fabulous French food, all possible because of my sister Rita’s gift of Life thirty-five years ago. https://a.co/d/44djVJZ.

09/01/2025

"Croagh Patrick marked the beginning of our last full day in Ireland. We had started early and arrived back at our B and B a little before noon to rejoin Rita and Melissa. After checking out, we headed for our final B and B just outside of Ennis in beautiful County Clare, where our first journey to Ireland had begun eleven years before. Our Irish adventure had yielded memorable moments, laughter, and tears. It had been the third trip to that magical land for Rita, JoAnne, and me. Unsaid—but very much weighing on all of us as we took off from Shannon Airport and caught wistful glimpses of the verdant landscape as it gave way to the rocky cliffs of Ireland’s west coast—was that it would likely be Rita’s last."

From my book, "Keeping a Piece of Her...the Joys and Sorrows of My Second Life".

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her&crid

08/28/2025

Proud of Her Kidney! Rita and me, "Kidney Day" plus one year.
"On major anniversaries such as the first, fifth, and tenth, we would invite Rita, Ann, and our friends to our home to celebrate with us..."
From "Keeping a Piece of Her, the Joys and Sorrows of My Second Life".
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her&crid

08/19/2025

Myself, Mike Pollard, kidney transplant-England, Chris Chiarello, kidney-pancreas recipient, California.
"Like the Olympics, the Transplant Games featured opening and
closing ceremonies where regional teams of athletes gathered on the field as loved ones and other spectators cheered from the stands. On these occasions, I would find myself lining up on the field with hundreds of individuals, each of whom would have likely been dead or tethered to dialysis had it not been for the courageous decision by someone else, whether a family member, acquaintance, friend, or a stranger’s donation of the organs of a loved one, made at times of unspeakable grief. We were living testimonies to the love, selflessness, and courage of others. To a
person, we shared a deep sense of humility and gratitude, emotions not lost on those in the stands who were there to support us."
From my book, "Keeping a Piece of Her...The Joys and Sorrows of My Second Life"
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her
https://www.malaprops.com/.../Keeping%20a%20Piece%20of%20Her

08/10/2025

Just published this story on Medium. It relates how JoAnne and I started biking together over thirty years ago and recounts some cycling memories.

Thirty years of cycling together

08/06/2025

One of the reasons I wrote “Keeping a Piece of Her” was so our granddaughters, each of whom was born after Rita died, would know about the impact she had, not only on my life, but on the lives of our whole family.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her
https://www.goodreads.com/.../232597029-keeping-a-piece...

08/03/2025

This afternoon, JoAnne and I had the privilege of participating in a powerful 24-hour LGBTQ Read-a-thon at the Friends Montessori School in Woodfin, just north of Asheville, spreading love and acceptance. JoAnne read three children’s books that stand against censorship, one of them based on a heartwarming true story about a pair of male penguins at the Central Park Zoo, who cared for a young penguin. I shared an inspiring chapter from my book, “Keeping a Piece of Her”, that told the story of my sister Rita’s coming out at age forty-eight, fourteen years after she gave me her kidney, as well as a poignant chapter entitled “My Body Is Torn”, the story of her last Good Friday.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her

08/01/2025

From my book, "Keeping a Piece of Her", from Chapter 2, "Making the Team"

In our neighborhood, everyone was either a fan of the Yankees,
Brooklyn Dodgers, or New York (baseball) Giants. We developed an
affinity for certain players, and for many of us, Mickey Mantle was
our guy. In addition to being recognized for his considerable talents on the field, Mick developed a reputation for playing through pain caused by his many injuries. For most of his career, the team trainer would wrap both of his legs before games in ACE bandages, ankles to thighs, so that his knees would not collapse while he was running in the outfield or on the basepaths. His “elbows up” running style suggested that he was often in pain, yet he played through it most of the time and played well. If Mick ran like that, we would too. Anyone walking past the schoolyard on Thirty-First Street in Astoria during one of our stickball games would have seen a bunch of kids running around as if our knees hurt. No one’s knees hurt at all. We just wanted to run like Mick.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=keeping+a+piece+of+her