As a family, we understood that this was just one more gesture consistent with Cynthia's giving spirit and carried out her wishes. As a result, five patients and their families have been given a second chance at life, and several more people will see their afflictions improve thanks to tissue donation.
It is truly comforting to know that there are people who continue to be touched by her even after her death.
I hope this page can serve as inspiration to other people to consider becoming an organ donor.
www.neob.org
www.nyodn.org
www.organdonor.gov
Boston Globe - A lesson in giving (April 2005)
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.
Give my blood to a teenager who has been pulled from the wreckage of his car, so he might live to see his grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain. Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat, and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain against her windows.
Burn what is left of me, and scatter the ashes to help the flowers grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all my prejudices against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God.
If by chance you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or a word to someone who needs you.
If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.