Heart Sister

Emmitt Highland is a 16-year-old whose fraternal twin sister, Minnie, died as the result of being struck by a car while running out onto the road to retrieve a dead animal. In Minnie’s jurisdiction, she is old enough to have consented to being an organ donor. Upon her death, her organs are harvested and distributed to donors, some of whom, in Emmitt’s opinion, are worthy while others, including a racist and an alcoholic, are less worthy.

A letter forwarded from the “National Transplant Organization” to Emmitt from his “Heart Sister” sets him on a mission to help his parents overcome their grief by locating all Minnie’s organ recipients in the hope that symbolically restoring Minnie will bring them out of their crushing depressions.
Through various means, mostly online searching and social media, Emmitt connects with these recipients. The encounters vary from humorous to arduous. His “Heart Sister” does not want to meet Emmitt in person. Emmitt is unable to restrain himself from finding out who this person is and goes to great lengths to steal hospital records to learn her name and location. He eventually connects with Becca and is stunned to learn of her reasons for her wish for confidentiality.

There are implausible plot elements, including breeches of privacy including summer camp records and Emmitt’s accession of hospital records along with the implausibility of Emmitt’s being granted access to providing volunteer service in a hospital with no screening (immunization records, police checks etc.) But these elements do move the plot along and make for a page-turning experience. Clearly, Stewart is basing this work on personal experience, but from my personal awareness of this issue, the book would have packed a deeper emotional punch if some of these scenarios more closely resembled current protocols.

Emmitt uses his media editing skills to interview each of Minnie’s donor recipients, asking each of them questions such as, “If you were an animal, what would you be?” (His questions reinforce Minnie’s unusual hobby of creating dioramas using dead animals salvaged through taxidermy.) He then knits the donors’ answers together with historical footage of Minnie asking these questions. The author, Michael F. Stewart uses a screenplay format to deliver the interviews. Emmitt’s creation is not met with the reaction he had hoped for, but the family does take some baby steps towards embracing their “new normal”.

The characters are refreshingly unique as is the storyline. Stewart takes an honest look at the paralysis of grief, the profound suffering of losing a loved one and the courage required to move on in the face of tragedy.