Stanford Magazine - March/April 2012

there were six such donations in the country; the number
went up to about 30 in 2010—a year in which more than
12,000 Japanese were o;cially waiting for life-saving
organ transplants. Because doctors aren’t proactive about
recommending transplantation, that number is thought

‘I’VE LIVED
MY WHOLE
LIFE NOT
LETTING
ILLNESS GET
IN THE WAY,’
ANA SAYS.
WHY WOULD
SHE LET
CANCER STOP
HER NOW?
to be smaller than the actual number needed. (More than 112,000
Americans need transplants, and an average of 18 people die daily
waiting for an organ.)

Like the book, the film started as a personal, rather than a public, chronicle. Before setting o; on their Japanese tour, Isa’s college sweetheart and husband of 14 years, Andrew Brynes, ’94, sought advice on videotaping the twins’ speeches. A Harvard-trained lawyer who works in intellectual property and election law, he belongs to the philanthropic organization Full Circle Fund, where he met filmmaker Smolowitz and sought advice. “We just wanted to make a family video of our experience,” Isa explains.

Smolowitz saw larger possibilities. “I was immediately drawn to
Ana and Isa, for who they are. They have a powerful, personal story
with the potential to change hearts and minds on a global scale. In
that way, they are both ordinary and extraordinary.”
This past fall, hundreds of family members, friends and those
involved in the CF and transplant communities packed the Castro
Theater in San Francisco for two public showings of the film.
Beforehand, the twins stood in the lobby graciously greeting viewers
and answering questions.

Almost as soon as the lights dimmed, some audience members
were in tears. The film follows the twins in Japan as they speak at
hospitals, social welfare organizations and schools. In other poignant
scenes, they work on the Donate Life float in the Rose Bowl parade
and swim in the U. S. Transplant Games, and Ana meets the family
of her first donor. Among those interviewed on screen are Dr. Bruce
talk about the good and the bad of
the transplant experience. They are
realistic and that carries a lot of weight
coming from other patients, rather
than from the doctor. The movie—and
the Stenzels—will have a lasting impact
on the education of patients.”
Some of the most touching mo-
ments in the film are archival footage,
which show the spindly girls who,
during long hospital stays, wrote,
illustrated and sold a booklet titled
“Life at Kaiser.” In another segment,
the sisters, now adults, remove their
blouses to show the scars from their
many surgeries.

WEB EXTRA
Read an exerpt from
The Power of Two about
the twins’ dorm life on
our website.

t first, the hoopla—the book, the opportunities
to speak, the movie and its invitation to film
festivals, including the Tokyo International
Film Festival—confused Isa and Ana. They find it puzzling that
other patients, caregivers and medical personnel seem amazed by
their candor. They bristle slightly when it is suggested that they are
inspirations: They feel they’ve done nothing extraordinary. As they
put it, they are just two sick kids who grew up and talk about it.

“CF is a culture,” Ana explains, “part of our identity. For me, it
has actually created so many positive things in my life—a career, the
people that I’ve met—that I can’t walk away from it.”
“That’s so Ana,” Isa notes. Then she discusses being public about
what so many people would keep private.

“We all have fears of death and pain. We are all scared of shortness
of breath. And we all have the capacity to confront the same range of
human emotions that Ana and I confront. Perhaps, we are reminders
to people of their own strength and their own courage.”
“And that,” says Ana, “is so Isa.”
As a child, Isa recalls reading in National Geographic that for 99
percent of human history, 99 percent of humans lived less than 40
years. “My life goal was always to make it to 40.”
Then, speaking for her sister as well as herself, “But of course, our
next goal is to make it to 50!” ■