Brandon and Scott met as adversaries in a union negotiation and somehow became golf buddies. Dustin was the other guy obsessed enough with golf to play every day in the middle of winter. They started a group chat where they swapped jokes and delved into deep discussions.

Scott was diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune disorder that was causing his kidneys to fail. Dustin offered up his in a joke that kept going until he went under the knife.

“Scott and Susan [Scott’s wife] used to joke that I’d just show up one day with a cooler on their doorstep and say, ‘No questions asked.'”

That group chat kept Scott busy during his weekly 12 hours of dialysis.

Something that’s a little abnormal in this process is their recovery after the surgery was done together as well. Dustin stayed in Scott’s house and they were both parked in rocking chairs in Scott’s living room for a couple of weeks recovering together.

That doesn’t mean their friendship has always been easy.

From the moment I thought Scott might need a kidney; it was just a given to me that I was giving him mine. Scott and Brandon — our friendship has ups and downs, we’ll argue and get mad at each other, but they’re my brothers. Everyone fights with their siblings. I just continue to love them more each and every day.

Read more in The Atlantic.