After 20-Year-Old Daughter Dies in Crash, Mom Gifted Recording of Her Heartbeat
Gifts come in all shapes in sizes … and with all sorts of price tags, too.
But some things are beyond tags or barcodes.
They’re the priceless items we hold dear throughout the years. The things that don’t end up in yard sales or donation boxes.
These kinds of gifts have no shelf life. They may hold little value to the common eye, but the owner knows just how much these gifts are truly worth.
For Chalis Barrett, her daughter Madison was all the gift she ever needed. Sadly, the 20-year-old was killed in a car accident in August 2018.
Chalis is a nurse in Gowanda, New York and makes a living listening to the heartbeats of patients, day in and day out.
But the one heartbeat she longed to hear is the one she forgot to listen to in the final moments of her daughter’s life.
“That was the one thing I always regretted was not listening one last time,” the grieving mom shared with WGRZ.
Her story is heartbreaking but there is some light for the Barrett family. Christmas brought a special gift for Chalis thanks to her husband James and the Unyts organ donation organization.
In a video that has gone viral on Facebook, Chalis opens her very own, rainbow-colored Build-A-Bear. A seemingly juvenile gift, but when she heard what was inside it brought tears to her eyes.
“I heard my daughter’s heart beat, but not only that, I heard it in somebody she helped,” an emotional Chalis told WGRZ.
According to this nurse, organ donors have the capability of saving “up to 100 people.” She and James hope Madison’s story will have an impact and inspire others to consider becoming donors.
What a truly incredible story and a beautiful gift this sweet mom will no doubt cherish forever. It is clear in the way she holds her Madison bear that this has helped her with her grief.
But more than that, the Barrett family has said making their daughter a donor has also helped them cope during this tough time.
For more information on organ donation, check out Donate Life or OrganDonor.gov. It only takes one simple decision to change someone’s life forever.
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