CHICAGO _ A stethoscope lay on the bed upstairs, in case someone asked Shae Brown to listen to her triumphant heartbeat.
Shae placed the medical instrument there, anticipating an opportunity to share the joyous sound with new friends. The Millers from Glencoe, Ill., had traveled to Shiner, Texas _ a small town of 2,069 people in the southeast part of the state _ to meet Shae, whose heart once pumped inside their beloved daughter and sister. Shae's successful heart transplant occurred May 20, 2013, in Houston after her donor, Alyssa Miller, passed away at the age of 24 following a long illness, leaving behind a twin sister, Eva, and parents Fred and Barbara.
This is the extraordinary story of Shae and Fred, of strength and courage, grieving and living, perspective and perseverance. This will help explain why Fred plans to run every step of the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8 alongside Brown, who reflected on that memorable June 2016 weekend as the time the families began to share more than medical history.
On the second day of the Millers' visit to Texas, Fred's daughter, Eva, worked up the nerve to ask Shae something she expected.
"Eva said, 'This is probably a really strange question, but is there any way we could listen to Alyssa's heart beating inside of you?' " recalled Shae, 49, a dental hygienist. "I said, 'That's not a strange question, and yes you can.' So I went up the stairs and got my stethoscope."
Eva pressed the device against Shae's chest and listened, emotionally. Then Barbara leaned in close and heard the beating that once had provided the rhythm for so much joy in her life. When it was Fred's turn, he wanted to hear, too, but hesitated. A father still struggling to cope found the timing too soon, the pain surprisingly fresh.
"I think I was more shocked by my own reaction that day than I was that Eva brought it up to Shae," said Fred, 62, a psychiatrist for NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston. "But, no, I just ... couldn't do it. I couldn't listen. It's a very surreal experience knowing that there is a part of my daughter that is still here. To be clear, this is Shae's heart. This is Shae's life. We get that and don't want to put any burdens on her. We want her to be herself. That said, it is kind of a weird thing."
Fred paused, looking for the right thing to say, like good psychiatrists do.
"In a way," he said, "I'll be running a marathon with a part of my daughter."
