Two Families, One Heart | Arkansan meets mother’s heart recipient
She lost her mother on Mother's Day weekend. Two years later, on Mother's Day weekend, she heard her heart once more.
Loss and Life
Two years ago, on Mother’s Day weekend, Little Rock native Melissa Colorigh lost her mother in a tragic motorcycle accident. On May 12th, she heard her mother’s heartbeat again.
“It shed peace on it, to know her heart is still here,” she said.
Her mother, Daphne, was riding as a passenger on her husband’s motorcycle. The two missed a light and their vehicle was T-boned. Daphne’s husband, John Williams, died on impact, but she was airlifted to the Shreveport hospital in critical condition.
Upon arrival, Daphne was found to have severe bleeding and brain damage. On May 7, 2016, she was pronounced brain dead at 45 years old.
“She had brain damage...but her heart and her liver were still good,” said Melissa.
After hearing the news that her mother had passed on, Melissa and her family were devastated but knew what to do next.
“My mom actually had a conversation with me and actually talked about how, if she ever had the chance to use [her] life to save someone else’s, she definitely would want to,” she said.
Honoring her wishes, the family donated Daphne’s organs using the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA). Due to privacy constrictions, they were unable to know the identity of the recipients. All they had was a letter from the heart recipient, thanking them for their generous donation.
Melissa desired to meet the woman who had her mother’s heart but, with no leads, it seemed like a lost cause.
Then, in January 2018, she received a link to a story published in The Daily Leader about a woman searching for her donor’s family.
The article featured Doris Arnold, a 64-year-old mother of four waiting for a heart. Arnold had almost had two transplants, but each time doctors found an issue with the donor’s heart and the procedure was canceled.
On May 8, 2016, she received a call that a heart was available. It was on Mother’s Day and just one day after Daphne had passed.
Melissa knew this was the woman she was searching for.
“So I just read all the names in the article...and found [her daughter] on Facebook,” said Melissa. “I messaged her and said, ‘Hey, I just read an article and I think you have my mom’s heart.’”
Meeting and Mending
Four months later, Melissa, along with other family members, road-tripped to meet Doris Arnold and her family at their two-year celebration of the heart transplant.
The theme: Two Families Connected By One Heart.
The celebration was complete with music, food, praise dancers and more. It was there Melissa got to hear her mother’s heart again.
“It was beautiful. It felt surreal. Hearing it was overwhelming,” Melissa said tearfully, “Losing her took something out of me. You have this gaping hole, and it felt like it closed some of that back up.”
Even though two years have passed, not having her mother around is still a surreal experience.
“It still feels like a bad dream,” Melissa said. She married just a few weeks earlier in April, an event that emphasized her mother’s absence.
“It’s something that hits really hard, realizing that someone you wanted to be there can’t. It just hurts,” she said. “It’s great that I have a really supportive, beautiful, loving family but it sucks that you can’t have [that person].”
Daphne immigrated from the Philippines to Los Angeles with her six sisters when she was 19 years old. Before she passed, she was working as a Zumba instructor at a gym in Arkansas; she loved to hike mountains and go on 35-mile bike rides.
Daphne and Melissa
Daphne’s three children inherited her sense of adventure, love of health and her kind heart.
Melissa, the oldest, is a science teacher in Texarkana; the younger daughter is serving in the U.S. Navy in California; her son, the baby of the three, is studying at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and is cheer captain.
They lost their mother, but they gained a new family.
“God can take something broken and just heal it. This was God’s grace at work in the real world,” said Melissa.
The entire experience has also given her a newfound appreciation of life.
“When you lose someone, it really puts life in perspective,” she said. “Don’t waste life holding grudges, living in the past. Don’t go to bed angry at people because you don’t know if you’ll see them again. Say, ‘I love you’ all the time. Focus on what’s important: just live a life full of love and live your best life.”
The two families plan to stay in touch, forever connected by Daphne's heart. Melissa hopes to someday find the recipient of her mother's liver.