Singer Natalie Cole kidney transplant successful! On the same day, Coles' oldest sister Carol dies

by Richard Johnson - New York Post

NATALIE Cole has just had the most heart-wrenching week of her life.

As Nat King Cole's Grammy Award-winning daughter, who's suffering from kidney disease, sat comforting her dying sister, Carol "Cookie" Cole, she got a frantic call from doctors saying that a kidney from a 22-year-old patient had become available and that she could receive a life-saving transplant immediately.

As Cole -- who was battling hepatitis C from a past drug addiction and needed kidney dialysis three times a week -- was undergoing transplant surgery a few hours later, her older sister passed away last Monday.

"This is all so surreal, and it is devastating," Natalie's younger sister, Timolin Cole, told the New York Post.

"Our sister Cookie hadn't been to a doctor in 30 years, and last week she went in and they found a cancerous spot on her lung. They had wanted to start chemo right away, but Cookie said no."

Natalie quickly rushed to Cookie's side, expecting to comfort her to the end.

"Natalie was there with her at her bedside at 4 in the morning on Monday (May 18th), and she got a phone call from her doctors that a kidney was ready for her," Timolin related.

"She said, 'What do you mean? I can't deal with that right now! I'm here with my dying sister!' And they said to her, 'No, ma'am. We've got to do it now. You've got to be at Cedars-Sinai in two hours.'

"I told her, 'Natalie, this is God's gift, and you've got to go now. Cookie would want this for you.' "

Cole relented and rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The transplant was, mercifully, a success, and she's expected to go home over the weekend.

"She's doing well, and she's going to party like a rock star in no time," Timolin said.

Natalie's rep called the family's life-and-death drama "a tragic coincidence."

Cookie's Credits from washingtonpost.com: The eldest of Nat King Cole's children, Carole Cole began her acting career in 1965 and signed to Columbia Pictures with her fellow actor, Harrison Ford. Her acting credits include the films The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (1974), The Mad Room (1969) and The Silencers (1967). She appeared on television in "Positively Black" (1975) and was a series costar on the NBC sitcom "Grady" (1975-6). On stage Cole appeared in Gore Vidal's Weekend (1968), the Lincoln Center/Public Theater production of Pericles (1974 New York Shakespeare Festival) and What If It Had Turned Up Heads (1972). As a writer, Cole's credits include features in On Stage, On Location Magazine and Christmas For Kids (CD).

Cole (Carol standing in picture with father, Richard Edwards - host of 'This is Your Life' TV show, and Natalie Cole) was CEO of King Cole Partners and King Cole Productions and sat on the Board of Directors with sisters Natalie Cole, Timolin Cole-Augustus and Casey Cole-Ray.