But I woke up again with a new heart. My dad sat beside me, crying, and told me the impossible: Mom had sacrificed herself so I could live. Her heart was now beating inside me. I could barely process it as he handed me her final letter, addressed “To my daughter.”

In her letter, she said I was always hers, no matter biology. She had loved me like her own from the moment we met. I cried, knowing I never got to say goodbye but also knowing she already knew I loved her. She didn’t just raise me she saved me. And I’ll live each day for her.