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home for a visit and decided to stay, reconnecting with her
father, with whom she had been estranged for a time.
She also decided she wanted to drive trucks for a living, which
tested the newly patched relationship.
“My dad and I are a lot alike in being stubborn,” Nixon said.
“He’s got certain views — old school — that there are certain
jobs that women should do and should not do,” and driving a
truck was on the “should not do” list.
“Dad’s reason was, ‘that’s not a woman’s job,’” she recalled,
to which her response was, “Well, it’s mine, so it is now.”
As soon as she was 21, Nixon began her career, driving a
cab hauling groceries in a 28-foot trailer. Later, she worked
construction jobs, and eventually landed a job pulling doubles
for FedEx.
“I loved it, except I didn’t like working nights,” she said.
In 2012, she found what she considered her professional
home, driving for the Walmart Private Fleet. She and her
husband Lee Nixon settled in Buffalo, Missouri, not far from
Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.
She liked the work and the people and the company culture,
and she especially liked being part of Walmart Hearts, a program
composed of Walmart truck drivers who take on projects to help
children or adults with chronic medical conditions or special
needs.
The way she sees it, when you come across someone who
needs help, you help them, because it’s the right thing to do.
In 2014, Nixon met fellow driver Deb Pollard at a Walmart
National Grassroots Meeting in Bentonville. The two hit it off
and became friends, as much as two people who are constantly
on the road can.
A year later, she and Deb got together at a Women In Trucking
conference. By then, Deb’s husband, Craig, was in complete
kidney failure.
“He was really sick, he was on dialysis, and at this point he
needed a kidney transplant and they hadn’t had any luck finding
a donor,” Nixon said. “I was like, ‘What? If he needs a kidney, I’ll
give him one of mine.’”
Pollard was stunned at the offer, Nixon said, but to Nixon it
seemed an obvious answer. He needed a kidney, she could get
by on one, what’s to consider?
Nixon’s husband needed a little more convincing. But she
told him, “Wouldn’t you want someone to do that for me or for
you?” She’d never met Craig, but she knew Deb was a giving
person. She was doing it for her.
“Sometimes you’re just certain that something is the right
thing to do, and that’s how this felt,” Nixon said. It felt like that
instinct was affirmed when the tests showed she was a perfect
match, something unusual for anyone outside a family member.
They went through with the transplant in November 2016.
Craig Pollard is doing fine, and, as the doctors told her could
happen, Nixon’s remaining kidney has grown. She’s at 70 percent
kidney function, which she points out is better than a lot of
people walking around with two kidneys.
When they’d been given the green light to do the surgery,
Nixon said, she asked Deb not to tell the folks at Walmart what
they were doing.
“The first thing the little stinker did was get on the phone and
call my boss,” she said.
It turned out to be a good thing. Insurance companies
consider donating an organ to be an elective procedure, on a par
with getting cosmetic surgery. But when the folks at Walmart
heard what she was doing, they agreed they’d pay 75 percent
of her salary during her recovery. It’s also what led to Nixon’s
nomination for the TA Petro Citizen Driver award.
On July 6, TA Travel Plaza 176 in North Bend, Washington,
was officially renamed the TA Seattle East/Carol Wolder-Nixon
Seattle East Travel Center. Nixon said she chose that site because
it was the first travel plaza she ever stopped at as a professional
driver.
At present, her career is on hold. She left the Walmart Private
Fleet in May when a change to the scheduling policy tipped the
work-life balance too far.
“I was like, ‘I want more than two hours a week with my
husband. There’s more to life than work. It’s more important to
have time with my husband, my daughter, my dad, who lives out
here now.”
Nixon had been on such good terms with everyone at the
company up until that point. She’s even continued working on
Walmart Hearts projects, “because I enjoy doing them and I
believe in the mission of helping children.”
In the meantime, she’s been able to devote more of her time
to a local women’s shelter.
Times being what they are, Walmart is developing a program
aimed at bringing back former drivers. She’s stayed in touch with
the vice president of transportation, and as of late July she was
confident she’ll be back behind the wheel for Walmart soon.
When you do the right thing, things have a way of working out
right.
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