Bride feels her late father’s heart beating in transplant patient who escorted him to the altar, on her wedding day.
Almost a decade after the bride’s father was killed, the man who received her father’s donated heart traveled from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to walk Jeni Stepien down the aisle.
This story began in September 2006, when her father, Michael Stepien, was walking home from his job as head chef at a restaurant. Mr. Stepien, 53, was cutting through an alley when he was robbed at gunpoint by a 16-year-old, who shot him in the head at close range.
As her father lay dying at a hospital, her family “decided to accept the inevitable” and donated his organs through an organization called the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.
The organization allows donor families and the recipients to keep in touch with one another after the transplant. Mr. Stepien’s heart went to Arthur Thomas, a father of four who lives in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
Given a diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia about 16 years before receiving the transplant, Mr. Thomas, 72, said that he was in congestive heart failure when word arrived that his doctors had found a heart, and it was Mr. Stepiens.
In the decade since Thomas received Stepien’s heart, the two families had kept in touch through letters, gifts and calls.
The last letter was Jeni Stepien’s request for Thomas to be a part of the wedding.
“What a greater honor could a person have than walking the daughter of the man who’s given his heart to him,” said Thomas.
Thomas met the Stepien family in person the night before the wedding, and was welcomed with open arms.
“Just hugging him made me feel like I was close to my dad again which on this day was perfect. It was what I needed,” said Michelle Stepien, sister of the bride.
Thomas placed the bride’s hand to his wrist. It was the first time in 10 years that Jeni felt her father’s heart beat. At the church, the bride was photographed touching Mr. Thomas’s chest.
At the reception, they danced together, and guests mingled with Mr. Thomas and his wife, Nancy. The two families say they want to keep in touch and will plan a get-together somewhere down the road.