Ok, I’ve finally done it! It’s been over two years now and I’ve finally written a letter to my heart donor’s family, letting them know how grateful I am for his or her generous donation. I have not sent this out yet, because I would definitely like to know what others think. Thanks!
Here it is:
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March 26, 2011,
To the family and friends of my most generous heart donor,
My name is Steven Berg and I am the incredibly grateful recipient of your loved one’s heart whose life was taken from you over 2 years’ ago in November 2008. I apologize that I have allowed so much time to go by before reaching out to you, but I wanted to make sure I allowed enough time to pass before doing so.
First of all, I want to express my most sincere condolences for the loss of your loved one. Although I don’t know the circumstances surrounding the events that led up to his or her death, I wanted you to know that because of the self-less generosity of your son or daughter, husband or wife, mother or father, sister or brother, aunt or uncle, cousin, niece or nephew, or even friend or neighbor, at least one life has been saved. Because of him or her, not only did I get my own life back, but my 4-year-old son got his daddy back!
Secondly, even though I could never give back the life of the one you lost, I can only pay tribute to him or her through volunteering and becoming a serious advocate for organ donation and to raise awareness of it.
I am not necessarily expecting a response back from you, but please feel free to do so if you like.
Thank you again so much and God Bless!
Steven Berg
Steve- I wouldn’t mention a movie in the letter, it’s too casual and they may have never heard of it. ( like me).
You are a very talented writer. I’m sorry to say this isn’t your usual heartfelt best.
I also wouldn’t include your websites in this initial letter. That makes it about you and not them. If you receive a positive response and they show an interest in your life then I would
go ahead and offer them the resources to learn more. I think you should really make the letter much more about them and their loved one. Just my opinion but If I were the family receiving this lette,r I don’t think I’d be moved to contact you.
I also wanted to point out that your blogs have a whole lot of personal information in them that you may not want the family to be reading on there initial impression. Their interest in you has to do with THEIR loved one. This initial letter to the family is not about you.
Hey Sue,
Thanks for the input. I agree with you about the reference to the movie. It always sounded cheesy to me too. So, I changed that.
Also, I agree that I probably did a bit too much self-promotion, especially by trying to steer them to my blogs. So, I took out the Facebook and WordPress references and only left the Caring Bridge right after my sign off.
Also, I’ve spent a lot of time editing my writings and either deleting or privatizing ones that reveal too much information.
I noticed at the end you put the word for, two times before organ donation. Just thought I would let you know that I spotted it.
Stacy
OK, cool! Thanks for noticing, Stacy! I just fixed it!