During my three-year-old daughter Daisy’s eight-hour transplant surgery, I imagined lying beside her on the operating table whispering, “Mommy loves you.” In reality, I was seated cross-legged in the icy waiting room, visualizing connecting with my girl. What else could I do? So I’d inhale, then exhale slowly, like the breathing tube connected to Daisy, just as I had during gestation when words and breath sustained us until we could touch. That night, July 20th, 2006, my daughter received a small bowel, liver, and pancreas. I may have given Daisy life, but a little girl we’ll never know—our heroine—saved it.
Joey Hoffman is a writer in NYC. Her work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She's working on a memoir.
RE-BIRTHDAY is the winning piece from Five Minutes’ 2022 Spring Contest: Second Chances. Congratulations, Joey!