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Ben was diabetic with high blood pressure. As a result, his kidney functioning began declining to the point where he would either need some type of dialysis or a kidney transplant in order to live.
"I truly never knew that I was a good candidate for transplant, though I've always been very healthy. I said I wanted to be tested, but he didn't want me to. So I said let's just see if we're the same blood type," Edie said.
It turned out the Pequea couple were the same type. Ben was still a little hesitant to let his wife be further tested to see if they were a match, but he agreed to discuss it later if it was a match.
"I would benefit, too, if I could get him healthier, because we wanted to do stuff. We have our kids, our family," Edie said.
After 18 months of testing and screening, Edie matched two of the six tissue typing areas, which is what is needed for a transplant.
"I'm so healthy it's not going to hurt me," Edie said. "It would not be just for him, but the whole family."
So Ben was scheduled for the transplant on June 18, 2004. About two weeks before that, the surgery was canceled. They hadn't tested Ben's gallbladder and when they did, they discovered gall stones and a hernia, which had to be repaired before the transplant.
Finally, on Dec. 23, 2004, the kidney transplant was performed in Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.
Prior to the surgery, Ben said, he was so weak he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair. But he came out of surgery with no pain at all.
"I had a big C incision and had to feel if I had gotten a kidney," Ben said.
It's now been five years, "but it could have been last week," Ben said. "I still get tears. I made up my mind that I would not go on dialysis. I said if I got one good year, I'd be happy."
Edie said her kidney is doing better in her husband than it ever did for her.
A retired nurse, Edie now wears her "donate life" bracelet all the time.
"If it wasn't there to remind me, I physically would never know (I'd donated a kidney)," she said. "It's an awesome thing."
While Ben's new kidney is strong, he developed colon cancer last year unrelated to the transplant. In May, he had his first colon surgery. Complications kept recurring, but have finally worked themselves out.
Ben is the "glass half-full" type.
"I say you can't have a bad day with a good attitude and you can't have a good day with a bad attitude. My chin's up and mostly cheerful," he said.
Ben, a retired entrepreneur, is now healthy again, just in time to celebrate his 68th birthday a week ago. Edie also is 68, and the couple will celebrate their 50th anniversary on March 19.
Although his strength is back, Ben still has problems with his stamina, he said.
He loves to cook and just had his brothers and sisters from Elizabethtown over for breakfast. Edie was his prep cook.
He also started baking his own bread about six months ago.
"I bake like my mom did," he said. "My four sisters and five brothers never liked the kitchen, so I helped my mom."
While Ben enjoys being in the kitchen, Edie enjoys reading, knitting, using the computer and making cards.
Several years ago, the Greenawalts got an RV and now dream of doing more traveling.
