After I Die, They Can Have It All Back

When my brother was three, he became seriously ill and needed umbilical cord blood, so I was born with a mission. When I was ten, his illness relapsed, and my parents forced me onto the operating table to donate bone marrow. Later, when his condition worsened and he needed a heart transplant, I was sent to the same hospital after being run over in a car accident. I heard my mother sobbing behind her hands. “If I have to choose between the two of them, I’d rather my son be the one who survives.” Fine, they can have my heart. Along with my life, I’ll give it all back to them.