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Cyclist rides across the U.S. to hear late daughter’s heartbeat

Heart beats on following an organ transplant

heartbeat cnn

Bill Conner received a gift that can’t be matched.

In January 2017, the Madison, Wisc.-based cyclist lost his daughter, Abigail. Coming to terms with his grief, Conner took to the road across America on his bike, beginning a two-wheeling odyssey meant to help him cope with the loss. After covering 2,600 miles—4,184 km—Conner found closure of sorts, when he met the man in whom his daughter lives on.

Upon her death, Abigail Conner’s heart was donated to Loumonth Jack, Jr., a Baton Rouge, La., man for whom the heart transplant was a matter of life and death. “She saved me,” he told CNN reporters, “and I can’t repay her. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

“All I can do,” he said, referring to Bill, “is send my love to his family.”

During his ride, Conner stopped in Louisiana to meet Jack. In a video posted to CNN, the cyclist, clad in a Trek jersey, embraces the younger man in a long, warm hug, the latter’s surgical scar still evident from when Abigail’s heart found new life. Connor then listened to his daughter’s heart beating—on Father’s Day, no less—with a stethoscope placed against Jack’s heart.

“She’s alive,” Conner said. “Jack’s alive and she’s alive. It’s her heart.”