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SALT LAKE CITY — Caroline Longshore is no stranger to tragedy.
The wife of a former BYU offensive lineman, Longshore remembers her 6- foot-5, nearly 300-pound husband’s big smile.
“Every time that he worked really hard, you knew, you could tell when he was proud of himself, was from that smile,” she said.
Nick Longshore’s smile graced their wedding day, and the day Caroline first became pregnant. But the lines filling that happy face soon faded.
On Nov. 13, 2012, their baby boy was stillborn.
“You feel extremely guilty when you lose a child,” Longshore said. “I felt like I had taken something from Nick that he was entitled to. His son was gone.”
But that wasn’t the end for Longshore.
“Losing a son and now my husband doesn’t seem real,” she said. “It’s not a coincidence that Nick’s accident was on the one year anniversary of our son. Everything is for a reason.”
Nick Longshore passed away due to injuries from an ATV crash.
Across old college rivalry lines, former University of Utah basketball star Kenny Gardner remembered what it was like playing back in 1969, especially against the Cougars.
“I wanted to beat them hard every time I played them,” Gardner said. “We had no sympathy. They were our bitter rivals.”
Gardner’s heart led his team to victory on the court, but 45 years later, he could tell it was getting weaker.
It's not a coincidence that Nick's accident was on the one year anniversary of our son. Everything is for a reason.
–Caroline Longshore
“They said, you’re our patient, you’re our candidate. You have bad heart failure. You need a new heart,” Gardner said.
Not only were there more than 50 people on the transplant list ahead of Gardner, but the blood type had to match, and the heart needed to be big.
“I can’t get a five-foot, one-inch, 105-pound woman’s heart,” Gardner said. “It just won’t work because I’m 6-foot-5. It’s got to get all the way from there to there, has to be big.”
Only 3 percent of the population have Kenny Gardner’s frame, meaning the wait alone could be the end.
But on Nov. 22, 2013, Kenny Gardner received a phone call and a chance at a new life.
“The phone rings, they say it’s a go,” Gardner said.
Gardner knew his transplant was a success. What he didn’t know was who it once belonged to.
“I knew (Nick) was a donor,” Longshore said. “I didn’t want it to go to somebody who wasn’t grateful in the first place, who just didn’t care, didn’t understand what they had.”
It’s common for the family of a donor to never find out who was a recipient. But in a strange twist of events, both families managed to figure things out.
There was no question Longshore and Gardner had to meet. They’ll never forget their experience.
“He said, ‘Feel that beat right there.’ It was surreal,” Longshore said. She could feel her husband’s heart “pounding.”
“She looks up at me and says, ‘That was just like I was hugging Nick,’ ” Gardner said.
Longshore’s 2-month-old baby girl will never know the feeling of being held in her father’s arms, but she will always have the chance to be close to his heart.
“Holding close to me, listening to her father’s heart beat in my chest, it’s amazing,” Gardner said. “It was amazing.”
“I want Hannah to see what Nick gave somebody,” Longshore said. “I want her to know what it means to give somebody something special like that.”
In hopes of giving back, Gardner founded the Hearts 4 Hearts Foundation to raise awareness for organ donation and encourage more people to become donors.
The foundation also created a college scholarship fund for the surviving family of organ donors in hopes of giving baby Hannah and others like her a higher education.
