Meeting the McKinnons

Hello again! The story continues concerning our heart donor's family. Saturday morning, Steven's mother, Esther, called Vernon's cell phone and I listened in and we talked, for 20-30 minutes. One thing that impressed me is that she said she was feeling low and decided to call us. That impressed me because some people tend to withdraw when they feel low rather than reach out. Talking to her was delightful. Esther is recovering from heart surgery, age 79. She said that they want to meet us and we discussed meeting later that day.

The next contact received from Steven's family was the very warm email I've printed below, with permission from Scott:

"Hello, I am Scott McKinnon, Steven's brother. Let me start by saying how grateful we are that you contacted our family. My family, as a whole, are looking forward to meeting both of you. Steven was a wonderful son, brother, and friend. Believe it or not, he had a heart of gold. To know that his heart now lives on with Vernon is a blessing. I have a wonderful wife, two daughters and a son. Apparently, we don't live far from you. It would be an honor for our family to meet your family. I will be looking forward to meeting you... I know my parents would love to meet you both.

God Bless you both!

Sincerely,

Scott McKinnon"

We spent three hours with Esther and Robert McKinnon in their home that evening. When Scott arrived, he took this picture of us.

Scott was very close to Steven and we are told that he looks very much like Steven. Scott had this tattoo added to his arm in Steven's memory. It says "In Gods Hands Now."
This is Scott with Vernon. It is amazing how close you can feel to someone that you've just met. It was a blessing for us to meet these people who are so glad to meet us. I feel unable to describe it adequately. I hope you were able to watch the NBC news video that I posted, so you can see and hear that heart recipient and his donor's parents talk about their experience.
In the NBC video, the donor's mother is shown listening to her son's heart with a stethoscope and it was a special moment for her. Before we left the McKinnon home, Esther listened to her son's heart and you can see from the expression on her face that it was a precious time for her.
I have more photos to share that were taken that day but this is all I have time for tonight.
I will add, though, that Tina called me tonight to thank us for meeting Steven's parents. Tina said she'd talked to Esther yesterday and could tell from how she talked that she was much happier than she'd been in awhile. Scott said to us Saturday night that he hadn't seen her smile like that in quite awhile. So I think we brought some comfort to them and that is what we hoped. It is a wonderful gift to us, too~

By the way, Esther and Robert live only 5-6 miles from us and at one time were just a few blocks away, but we didn't know them then.