The small road signs are buried outside Linda Deming’s home on Brown Road in Pownal, in the debris of the late December snowstorm. A frustated Deming sits – and waits.

Deming, 66, is living with stage 5 renal failure, and she’s been undergoing dialysis for more than a year. In her desperate search for a living kidney donor, Deming, with help from friend Deb Uecker of Freeport, put out signs last summer along both Brown Road and Royalsborough Road in Durham. The signs read: “I need a new kidney”; “Before it’s too late”; “Would you try to donate?”; “Call Linda 688-2262.”

Despite considerable attention from the media, a local donor didn’t pan out.

Meanwhile, a nationwide search has produced 50 would-be donors. And, as of last week, no calls of a match came from the Maine Transplant Program in Portland, the only kidney transplant organization in the state.

Deming can’t understand it.

“We got calls from all over the country and we sent out over 50 packets for people to be donors,” she said. “And then we just wait and wait and wait and wait. We were told wait for a match for six weeks, but it’s been since September.”

The packets include the would-be donor’s blood type (Deming is A positive), medical records and a urinalysis.

“Some of the people who called for packets say they have heard from Maine Transplant, some not,” Deming said. “Because we sent out so many packets, I remain cautiously optimistic.”

Deming drives three times a week to Fresenius Medical Center in Bath for dialysis. She wears a stent beneath her collarbone that goes into a large vein, leading to her heart.

“It takes the blood in and out of my body so it can be cleared through the dialysis machine,” Deming said. “I have good clearance. The blood is going in and out fine.”

According to the Maine Transplant Program, kidney transplantation is the best way known to save a person’s life after he or she develops kidney failure. Transplants from living donors have a better chance of success than those from deceased donors. The waiting time for a cadaver kidney can be as long as four years in the United States.

Deming lives with her husband of 33 years, Ian. Two cockapoos keep her company, but more importantly, she often has the companionship of her 24-year-old son, Jeremy Deming, during the day. A student at Southern Maine Community College, he has been back home for a year.

“Unfortunately, I can’t convert a kidney because I’m not in good enough shape,” he said. “I give her moral support – listening and comforting her when she gets off the phone with Maine Transplant. We just hope that one in those 50 is going to do it.”

Linda Deming of Pownal, who needs a kidney transplant, is comforted to have her son Jeremy living at home.