Addison McArthur’s life began with a fragile heartbeat.
Just a few weeks after her birth in Vancouver, doctors delivered news that shattered her parents’ joy: the left side of Addison’s heart had stopped functioning. The diagnosis—left ventricular non-compaction cardiomyopathy—was rare, dangerous, and life-threatening. Without a new heart, their little girl would not survive.
Elaine Yong, Addison’s mother, was thrust into a reality no parent is ever prepared for. Each breath her baby took felt borrowed, each moment shadowed by fear. Doctors placed Addison at the very top of the transplant list. It was her only chance.
Hundreds of miles away, in Nevada, another mother was facing her own heartbreak. Felicia Hill had welcomed her daughter, Audrey Sullenger, into the world with love and dreams of a future. But after just six days of life, Audrey was gone—her tiny body giving out before Felicia ever had the chance to see her grow.
In her grief, Felicia made a decision that would ripple far beyond her own loss. She chose to donate Audrey’s organs. Statistics show that one donor can save up to eight lives. In Audrey’s case, her heart was destined to become a gift of survival for a baby girl she would never meet.
On her very first Mother’s Day, Elaine got the call. There was a donor. There was hope.
The heart that had stopped inside Audrey’s body was carried north, across borders and time zones, to beat again in Addison’s chest. Audrey became Nevada’s youngest organ donor that year. Her middle name was Hope, and through that name, she gave another child a future.
For Elaine, gratitude became a second heartbeat. She longed for the chance to say thank you—to look into the eyes of the woman who had given her daughter life when all seemed lost. A year after the surgery, Elaine wrote a letter and sent it through the transplant network. Weeks later, Felicia replied. Their first connection wasn’t face-to-face, but through words—messages that bridged grief and gratitude.
Eventually, the two mothers met. At a Donate Life Walk in California, Felicia brought a small T-shirt for Addison, embroidered with Audrey’s name and the words that celebrated her gift. Elaine brought a stethoscope. With trembling hands, Felicia placed it against Addison’s chest.
And then she heard it.
The steady, strong beat of her daughter’s heart. Alive. Thriving. Carrying another child into the future.
“I just wanted to hug Elaine,” Felicia said later. “I felt connected immediately, knowing that another mother got to raise their child. That gave me so much happiness.”
Their story didn’t end with that meeting. Both women dedicated their lives to advocating for organ donation. Elaine now works with BC Transplant in Vancouver, ensuring that the gift her daughter received continues to ripple outward. Felicia, too, shares Audrey’s story, reminding others that even the smallest life can leave behind an immeasurable legacy.
“Every time I hear they’re working on a donor case,” Elaine reflected in a video for BC Transplant, “I think about how somebody is about to get the gift of life. It’s never lost on me—every donor changes everything for another family.”
Today, Addison is alive because Audrey lived. Because in the midst of unbearable loss, one mother gave another the chance to keep her child.
It is a story of two daughters forever bound by one heart. A heart called Hope.
