Xanthia Ng, 13

School: Yusof Ishak School (Secondary)

Topic: An email to a close friend who received a heart transplant on how to honour the deceased donor and his family.

A Wish To Honour The Donor

Dearest Charles,

I can’t even express the relief and joy I have for you after seeing you recover in the hospital yesterday. For so long, I have watched you struggle with your condition, like a flickering candle that could go out at any moment, which put me under constant pressure to ensure you were fine. Watching you now, with colour in your cheeks and a working heart, literally feels like a miracle. As your best friend, this heart transplant isn’t just a medical operation to me, but a second chance for you to live to your fullest.

I’ve been thinking about what you said yesterday; you mentioned that you wish to honour the donor and his family. I have a simple yet creative idea that I would like to share with you. The idea is called “Living On” the mosaic path. The path represents the donor's heart literally carrying you forward into your new life.

My idea is to create a small path or garden made by mosaic pieces and portraits. Each mosaic piece can be hand-drawn to form a particular shape or image, and we can get people to write their notes of love or things they would like to say or express on the mosaic. The mosaic pieces can also include symbols of the “new life” you are living, for example a sunrise or a musical note. We can also get volunteers in school to draw a piece of artwork featuring our gratitude towards the donor, or just a simple portrait of the donor and his family, with their consent, of course. This is a permanent and beautiful way to honour the donor and express your gratitude.

To support the donor’s family, we can create a scrapbook called the “legacy book”. In this scrapbook, we can include words of appreciation, love, and motivation, together with pictures of the drawing and assembling process to show our love and effort. We should also include messages from everyone who helped make the path, explaining how his sacrifice inspired the community. I suggest you also add snippets of your life now with the new heart in the scrapbook and write a paragraph about how grateful you are for their son’s sacrifice, and how much it meant to you. This serves as a reminder to them that their son is remembered, appreciated, and loved for his sacrifice.

For resources, we will need mosaic pieces called tesserae and a small corner of our school garden.

We can get our school’s art club to help paint or draw the portraits and paintings, and Mr Tan has already granted us permission to use the garden. For the mosaic pieces, we can get the class mentors of each class to distribute them and get the students to write or draw on them appropriately, after learning about the donor’s sacrifice.

Rest well and stay strong! This idea will definitely make sure that the donor’s legacy is always remembered and appreciated.

With so much love,
Adam

Disclaimer: Please note that the views and opinions expressed in the essays for the Live On Festival 2026 are those of the participants and are not endorsed by the National Organ Transplant Unit (Ministry of Health).

To learn more about organ donation and organ transplantation in Singapore, please visit www.liveon.gov.sg ↗ (opens in new tab)