Be warned about the following video.
It is guaranteed to make you cry.
But it"s also guaranteed to make you stop and think and appreciate life and your loved ones.
It features the family of 14-year-old Katelyn Zimmerman, a young woman who was killed by a drunk driver in March.
Katelyn"s parents recently had the opportunity, however, to remember their loved one in a special and unique way: by meeting the person who received her heart.
As reported by ABC11, the Zimmermans actually listen below to Katelyn"s heart beating inside Albert Jeffries IV, a 14-year-old from North Carolina with dilated cardiomyopathy.
A resident of Burlington, he was on the waiting list for a new heart for over 100 days before his family received the call that changed its life forever.
“Thank you for the gift of being able to see more in life,” Albert – whose condition means his heart has trouble pumping blood reads in a letter to Katelyn’s family during their meeting.
“Thank you for being my miracle.”
ABC reports that Katelyn and her brother, Dylan, were both tragically killed in the March accident, with Katelyn having just told her grandmother that same day how she wanted to be an organ donor.
At an event organized for this amazing occasion, butterflies and balloons were released into the air.
Albert’s mother read a poem and everyone cried.
“It put us at peace knowing that Katelyn’s heart is still beating even though it’s not in her,” her father, Shawn Zimmerman said, according to Fox8, adding:
"He gets to do what Katelyn can"t do, live on, do a kid thing, be a kid."
We"ll give Albert"s mother, Tina, the final say in this inspiring story:
"We could not stop crying. We could not stop hugging. We could not stop thanking them for everything. A thank you is just not enough, it"s just not enough for what they"ve done for my family."
