文档介绍：心靈雞湯 - The Most Precious Gift
I'll never forget that warm summer day in July 1965, when my mother unexpectedly died of a still unexplained illness at the young age of thirty-six. Later that afternoon, a police officer stopped by to ask my father's permission for the hospital to use my mother's aortic valve and the corneas from her eyes. I was absolutely stunned. The doctors want to dissect Mom and give her away to other people, I thought as I ran into the house in tears.
At fourteen, I could not understand why anyone would take apart a person I loved. To top it off, my father told them, "Yes."
"How can you let them do that to her?” I screamed at him. "My mom came into this world in one piece and that is how she should go out."
"Linda," he said quietly, putting his arm around me, "the greatest gift you can give is a part of yourself. Your mother and I decided long ago that if we can make a difference in just one person's life after we die, then our death will have meaning." He went on to explain they had both decided to be organ donors.
The lesson my father taught me that day became one of the most important in my life.
Years passed. I married and had a family of my own. In 1980, my father became seriously ill with emphysema and moved in with us. For the next six years, we spent many hours talking about life and death.
He cheerfully told me tha