Heart Matters

A friend of mine is waiting for a heart transplant. She's 27, loves shoes, shopping, and going to the gym. I've heard her tell her story several times now about how she was a healthy, normal girl who went from a heart murmur and a mysterious fainting episode to heart failure and being in need of a transplant. Her story reminds me  of my own, except hers went to life-threatening while I am still just a fainter with a beat-skipping heart.

I tell people it's my mission to find her a heart. Someone, somewhere will sign a donor card, become an organ donor and my friend will get her new heart.

The other day I was driving her home and we were chatting about hope, waiting and patience. My friend told me one day she saw a pink elastic on the ground that was bent in a way that made it look like a heart. She said she felt inspired at that moment that her heart was coming soon. Unfortunately, it didn't. I've been thinking about the symbolism of hope for my friend and decided to start collecting picture of hearts for her.

From A Heart for Kristin

From A Heart for Kristin

Last week on my trip we even saw an elastic heart on the sidewalk. It's hard to see, but it's there!

From A Heart for Kristin

This will be an ongoing project for me. I will keep adding new hearts to the album as I collect them. If anyone has a picture to add to the collection, send them to me at jill at ajillstory dot com.