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As Ashley McKay glanced at the clock, she could see it was well past midnight. She had been isolated from the real world so long, she could bearly remember what day it was. She searched the almost bare walls and spotted a small calendar . Someone had been marking off each day with a big X. The date was February 14th, Valentine's Day. The traditional day of love, the day of romance, the day of hearts, chocolates and flowers. For Ashley, this was a day of blood being drawn, continuous bags of fluid pumping into her body, constant checks on her blood pressure and pulse. The only thing that fit was the heart bit.
Ashley McKay needed a heart transplant. The heart she had been born with was defective, but it wasn't discovered until she was twelve and began to have difficulty with breathing. After many visits to many doctors, she was diagnosed with a severe heart disease. Ashley could still remember the words the doctors spoke to her and her parents that late autumn afternoon twelve years ago. "Ashley will probably live ten to fifteen years at the most. She will need a heart transplant by the time she is twenty-one." There had been many late-night telephone calls insisting that she be rushed to the hospital because there was a possibility of a transplant. There had been just as many disappointments.
The doctors said this time was different, but Ashley knew not to get her hopes up too high. Over the last year of waiting for a heart transplant, she had become a veteran of disappointments.
This time was somewhat different than the others because the particular transplant was from someone that had been in a coma for several months. The family had decided to disconnect the life support. Ashley began to have the same thoughts she always had whenever she was notified of a possible donor. In order for to live, someone else had to die. Another family had to suffer in order for her family to celebrate.
Things began to happen quickly. A team of surgeons entered her room and told her the donor's heart was on its way. For the first time in months a small stirring of hope began to fill Ashley's heart. She remembers being rolled into the operating room and everyone giving her a thumbs up and then everything began to fade away.
As Ashley began to slowly awake, her eyes were blurred as she looked around her room. At first she wasn't sure if she was in heaven or not. Everything was so bright and she felt such peace and contentment. Her parents immediately drew to her bedside full of smiles and tears. "The transplant surgery had been a success.", they told her, although the next several weeks would be crucial. Sleep began to overwhelm Ashley, but her mind kept going back to the young woman that had died and her family. Ashley's mother tried to console her. She told her that the mother of the young woman had written a note to Ashley and requested it be given to her when she awoke from the surgery. Tears began to fall from Ashley's eyes as her mother read the note.
"If you are reading or hearing this that means your surgery was a success. My daughter was the most giving and compassionate person that I have ever meet. She would not want you to feel guilty for living while she died. She was a Christian and while she is no longer with us here on earth, she is living in her real home in heaven. And we will see her again. If you a Christian and I pray that you are, you too, will get to meet her one day. Today, February 14th is my daughter's birthday and it is also the day she left this earth. My daughter's name was Valentina. May God bless you."
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