Leo and Virginia “Ginger” Hergenroeder of Middleburg, Virginia, are getting ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend. But that wasn’t always a certainty this year.

Last April, Ginger received a donated kidney through MedStar Georgetown Hospital’s paired kidney exchange program, which allows doctors to search for suitable donors through a massive database.

Initially, Leo was cleared to donate a kidney to his wife. He was a pretty good match, but doctors were confident they could find an even closer match.

And they did. Leo was still able to donate his kidney, which went to someone else in need.

“Leo went in first, for them to harvest his kidney. Then, I came in,” Ginger said, adding that she and her husband had their procedures on the same day.

She recalled the day of her surgery when her doctor pointed to a plain brown box on a table in the operating room and said the donated kidney would soon be inside her body.

She laughed, recalling how plain she thought the box was: “It should be more festive. It should be wrapped in pink paper with a big red bow.”

Leo and Ginger, both graduates of West Springfield High School, went their separate ways after high school, building their lives. They reconnected at their 30-year high school reunion and began dating long-distance as Ginger lived in Florida at the time.

In 1995, Ginger, an avid equestrian and fitness enthusiast, developed Goodpasture Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that led to her kidneys declining and failing. She was able to maintain decent health through diet and exercise, but the disease caught up to her.

She researched several places to receive renal care before deciding on MedStar Georgetown in D.C.

“I’m really glad that we were able to be thorough and get this done for them,” said Dr. Jennifer Verbecy, director of MedStar Georgetown’s Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program.

She described the paired kidney exchange program as part of a national matchmaking service that helps people who need an organ to get that organ quickly and efficiently.

As for Leo and Ginger, they’re making plans for Valentine’s Day.

“We’re going to stay home,” said Leo, as Ginger laughed. “Candy and flowers!”

“The whole goal of all of this is that they go live their normal lives and do whatever they want to do,” Verbecy said. “If they want to go out and party that’s great. If they want to stay home together, that sounds perfect to me.”

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Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to support lawmakers as they introduced ‘Virginia’s Law’ — a measure to help victims sue alleged sex abusers by making it more difficult for them to evade lawsuits.

The bill, named after Virginia Giuffre, Jeffrey Epstein’s most high-profile accuser, would remove the statute of limitations – the time in which a lawsuit can be filed — in sexual abuse civil cases nationwide while also creating new legal options for survivors.

“People refuse to accept silence at the end of the story. It’s that simple,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, a co-sponsor, said.

“It cannot be, when something this dastardly and this terrible and this heart wrenching happens for years,” he said.

The bill also includes language stripping what supporters called legal loopholes for alleged abusers operating in different jurisdictions, citing Epstein’s use of his private Caribbean island as a case in point.

“Survivors of Epstein’s abuse were ignored. They were doubted, they were silenced, they were dismissed,” Schumer said. “And even when the truth finally came out, even when the world finally listened, too many survivors were still told by the law, it’s too late.”

States have varying rules that disallow abuse survivors from bringing civil cases if too much time passes. For example, Alabama has a two-year civil statute of limitations, which can be extended if the victim is a minor, while Texas has no limit on when a case can be brought.

Schumer argues Virginia’s Law gives survivors of abuse across the nation the time to process traumatic events before bringing civil cases and removes automatic protections for abusers who wait out legal deadlines to file suit.

“That’s a system that protects abusers by waiting survivors out. Our law, Virginia’s Law changes that,” Schumer said. “It allows survivors to seek accountability when they’re ready, when they’re strong, supportive, able to face the weight of civilizations, of civil litigation, sometimes it takes years to recuperate from the horror that occurred.”

Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer representing several Epstein survivors, agreed with Schumer that the current limitations are too strict for victims and should be much more flexible.

“Many survivors don’t come to terms with their abuse until many, many years later, and they deserve the right to be able to bring an action when they’re ready. That’s what this law does,” McCawley said.

“It is heartbreaking to be here announcing this without [Virginia], but I will tell you that her voice is being heard loud and clear,” she said.

“She is saying all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, independents, all Americans need to come together and pass this law. It’s the right thing to do. It’s the thing we need to do now,” she said.

Holding a photograph of Virginia Giuffre, her family members stood with survivors.

Giuffre’s brother, Sky Roberts, and his wife both got emotional as they honored her.

Roberts spoke through tears.

“I want to begin with a single word, a word that meant everything to my sister, a word we will not stop fighting for until real justice is served and that word is ‘change,’” he said.

“We are holding an overwhelming mix of grief, loss and pride, and if our voices shake and our tears fall, it is only because of the depth of our love for our sister,” he said. “Grief without action is another kind of silence, and Virginia did not survive what she survived just to be silenced again.”

Lawmakers and survivors said they hope Virginia Giuffre’s legacy can live on in future investigations into Epstein.

“What Virginia did was build the bridge, and now we are crossing that bridge because of the bravery and the words and the wisdom, and I’m sorry for the loss of Virginia, where she has left something so powerful for all victims,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, another co-sponsor, said.

Virginia Giuffre’s brother has penned a furious open letter to Ghislaine Maxwell as she refuses to testify over her links to pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced socialite declined to answer questions from a congressional committee on Monday, vowing to only speak out if she is granted clemency by President Trump.

Sky Roberts, whose sister became the poster child for survivors of Epstein and who tragically ended her own life last year, railed against Maxwell in a letter that was delivered to the committee and also shared on social media.

“Ghislaine Maxwell, you were not a bystander,” Roberts wrote. “You were not ‘misled’. You were a central, deliberate actor in a system built to find children, isolate them, groom them, and deliver them to abuse.

“You used trust as a weapon. You targeted vulnerability and turned it into access. That is not a mistake. That is not poor judgment. That is predation.”

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In his letter, Roberts drew attention to his sister’s description of Maxwell.

“Ghislaine was a monster; she was often more vicious and cruel than Epstein. Put it this way: Epstein was Pinocchio, and she was Gepetto. She was the guy controlling,” Giuffre wrote in her memoir, Nobody’s Girl, which was published after her death.

Roberts slammed Maxwell for the part she played in building a “template of exploitation” that was used to abuse young girls.

“The suffering was not incidental to what you did. It was the point. It was your reward for a sadistic system you helped create.”

Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, and invoked her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during a House Oversight Committee deposition Monday morning.

David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, said he advised his client to remain silent given her ongoing appeal to her 2021 conviction, but said she was “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.”

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Maxwell remained silent when faced with questions about her knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities, but told lawmakers that both President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton were innocent of wrongdoing.

House Oversight Chairman James Comer, who subpoenaed Maxwell, said he was “disappointed” in her deposition. Comer told The Independent the committee considered giving her immunity, but ultimately decided against it after speaking with survivors.

“This was something new today, obviously that’s not for me to decide, that’s for the president to decide,” Comer said.

While the president has acknowledged his ability to pardon Maxwell, he has not expressed an interest in doing so.

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Roberts said in his letter that forgiveness was “neither owed, nor offered” to Maxwell, and he urged Congress to continue investigating why she had been moved to a minimum-security prison after an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

He ended with another direct quote from Giuffre, in which she addressed her tormenter directly:

“Ghislaine, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell,” Giuffre wrote before her death. “Trapped in a cage forever just like you trapped your victims.”

Maxwell’s deposition followed the Justice Department’s release of three million pages of documents related to the government’s Epstein files.

Many of the documents are emails between Epstein, Maxwell, and third parties, and it is widely believed that Maxwell could shed more light on those involved.