The State : His Heart Beats On for Girl

A year after Felipe Garza predicted his own death and asked that his heart be donated to a dying girl whom he admired, the transplanted organ sill beats within Donna Ashlock. “I manage not to think about him much because it is so sad,� Donna said. “His face keeps popping up in my mind, though. It hurts to think about it.� Doctors said Donna, 15, of Patterson in Stanislaus County, was a few weeks from death with cardiomyopathy when Garza’s mother read him a story about Donna’s illness in a local newspaper. “I remember his voice in the next room sounding surprised,� his mother recalled. “Then he said, ‘I’m going to die, and I’m going to give my heart to Donna.’ He was serious, and it made me nervous. I told him to shut up.� A few days later, Garza, who was also 15 and a friend of Donna, was dead of a cerebral hemorrhage, and she was given his heart.