A little more than eight years have passed since Gastonia s Sam Michaels received a heart transplant at Duke University Medical Center.
But Michaels, 75, still gives thanks every day for the gift of the heart that has allowed him to keep working, keep loving his wife, keep serving as father to his sons and as Paw Paw to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
A native of Ranlo and a 1963 graduate of the old Holbrook High School in Lowell, Michaels also thinks each day of Adam, the 36-year-old man whose heart he received, and of Adam s mother, Kathy, who decided to allow her son s heart to go on beating.