Penelope Wilson
Penelope Wilson
July 13, 2023 ·  2 min read

Bride walks down the aisle with man who received her murdered father’s heart

Every girl dreams of her wedding day as she grows up. The beautiful dress, the pretty bouquet of flowers, being surrounded by happy faces, and the breathtaking moment she walks down the aisle with her father towards her loving partner. Tragically for Jeni Stepien, her father Michael Stepien was murdered while walking home from work ten years ago.

As Jeni was making preparations for her wedding day, everything was in perfect place, but she couldn’t help but remember her loving father and how he would not get to be there with her. She knew he should have been there with her, and suddenly she came to an incredible decision. She would invite the man who had received her father’s heart in a life-saving operation all those years ago.

Arthur Thomas was close to death when doctors found a match for him in Michael Stepien’s heart. “I was on death’s door… I was going to [die] in the next few days” explained Arthur. Stepien’s donated heart saved his life, and as such he wrote a thank you letter to the Stepien family and he stayed in touch with them over the subsequent years.

When Jeni invited him to the wedding, asking if he would walk her down the aisle in memory of her father, he was humbled and said yes. “What greater honor could a person have than walking the daughter of the man who’s given his heart to him?” he said, clearly very moved by her touching request.

So, on the day of the wedding, Jeni was proudly walked down the aisle by the man now carrying her father’s heart in his chest.

wedding heart donation

She was overcome with emotion after the ceremony, “I was so thankful that my dad could be with us here today in spirit and a piece of his physical being… that was really, really special for us.” She was also overcome with emotion when she could feel her father’s heart beating in Arthur’s chest, reminded of the powerful lover her father had given her throughout her life.

She reminded everyone of the love that was at the core of the ceremony, “It truly was the best day of my entire life!”, she wrote in a Facebook post, “an absolute dream come true!”