Francie Foster has known for years who chef Josh Rathbun was. When she’d occasionally dine with big groups at restaurants where he’d worked over the years, Rathbun would sometimes stop by to greet the table.
But Foster didn’t really start getting to know the chef personally until she decided to give him one of her kidneys.
Back in February, Rathbun, the 39-year-old owner of Lotte restaurant at 320 S. Market— shared a vulnerable post on his personal Facebook page. For the second time in his life, he wrote, he was in need of a kidney transplant, and the quickest way for him to get one would be for someone to volunteer one of theirs. The post was shared more than 700 times in less than 24 hours, and Rathbun’s plea spread digitally throughout the city.
Foster, 61, saw the post and was moved: Here was a young husband, father of two small children, and business owner in the prime of his life who was struggling with kidney disease and suffering through dialysis. It could happen to anyone, she thought, and Foster pictured her own five children, the oldest of whom was just two years younger than Rathbun…