When John Reid pressed the paw of a teddy bear, he heard a sound he never expected to hear again. It was his son Dakota’s heartbeat.
Dakota was 16 when a car crash changed his family’s world seven years ago. In the days that followed, John made a decision that still feels impossible to put into words, to pull Dakota off life support and donate his organs so others could have a chance to live. One of those people was Robert “Bob” O’Connor, the man who received Dakota’s heart.
Nearly a year later, Bob sent John a Build-A-Bear with a recording inside. That moment reopened grief and offered something else, too: proof that Dakota’s impact did not end where his family’s loss began.
