Blood is vital. Blood is precious. And right now, blood is scarce.

       That’s what I’m hearing from local blood banks. I feel like I often hear that — there’s a blood shortage! — but the story of Mary Anne Oishi drove home the point to me. And it illustrates the dire situation we find ourselves in.

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       I heard about Mary Anne from one of her friends, Marilyn Silvey. The two met 35 years ago when their families started attending a unique church in Reston, Va.: United Christian Parish.

       What’s unusual about UCP is that it gathers four denominations under one roof: Methodist, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ. It was founded in the same spirit of Reston itself, a planned community that welcomed people of all colors and faiths. Shouldn’t a church be just as welcoming?

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       Later, after they retired, Marilyn and Mary Anne found themselves living in the same retirement community, Ashby Ponds in Ashburn, Va. Mary Anne suffered from a blood disorder that required what became an increasing number of transfusions. When Marilyn heard not long ago from Mary Anne that a blood shortage meant the amount of blood product she received had to be reduced, Marilyn organized a blood drive, scheduled for this Friday.

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       Mary Anne died on July 17. She was 72. She didn’t die of a lack of blood, but of the disease she had been fighting for 15 years.

       “There’s no reason to believe the shortage of blood was a cause of her death, but it was certainly a cause of a great reduction in the quality of life toward the end,” said her husband, Roy Oishi. “It isn’t any individual’s fault. It’s the collective failure of the general wide community to make donations at the expected rate.”

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       Heather Wade, the donor recruitment manager for Inova Blood Donor Services, said the current shortage is the worst she’s seen in the six-and-a-half years she’s been in the job.

       “It is one traumatic disaster away from truly starting from scratch,” she said. “What we collect every day is tested and shipped back out. There is no buffer. There is no cushion. There is no ‘if something bad happens in three days we’ve got enough.’ We’re living on the precipice of a true emergency here.”

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       Why? First, it’s summer, a season that always sees a drop in donations, said Heather. School is out, vacations are on, people are busy.

       This year, that drop in donations is combined with an increase in demand because of the pandemic. Last year, many elective procedures were postponed. Now those operations are back on. And with many pandemic travel restrictions lifted, people are out on the roads again, getting into accidents and needing blood.

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       “What could have been small medical needs have now turned into exponentially larger needs, including the need for blood products,” Heather said.

       Jodi Sheedy at the American Red Cross, the region’s other major supplier of blood, told me, “It’s not just Northern Virginia or the D.C. area. It’s a challenge that’s nationwide at this time.”

       Mary Anne was a public-health nurse. She had worked in a nursing home and, later, as a nurse assigned to public schools in Fairfax County. She and Roy met when they were members of different ski clubs on Long Island.

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       “We met over socials and then skied some together,” Roy told me. “One thing led to another.”

       And that led to two other things, Roy and Mary Anne’s two children, Jeffrey and Marie.

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       As Mary Anne’s disease progressed, she would receive an infusion of two units of red blood cells when her hemoglobin numbers fell to a certain level, Roy said. But in the past couple of months, as the shortage took hold, Mary Anne would receive just one unit.

       “Physicians are making those hard calls,” said Heather. “We don’t want to put people in that situation.”

       United Christian Parish is still sponsoring a blood drive, now in Mary Anne Oishi’s honor. It’s from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Friday in an Inova bloodmobile at the church, 11508 North Shore Dr., in Reston. To register, visit bit.ly/UCP073021 or call 866-256-6372 and use sponsor code 8632.

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       “Perhaps taking the opportunity of her passing as an impetus to increase the supply for those who need it and are still alive, something good can come out of it,” said Roy.

       Said Heather: “There is a patient waiting for you to save their life. It takes a community to save a community.”

       For information on how to donate blood, visit inovablood.org. You can also give through the American Red Cross: redcrossblood.org.

       Twitter: @johnkelly

       For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly