A special education teacher who received a double-lung donation recently led her class in making comfort blankets for donor families.

Jackie Dennis says that even though the donation she received made her joyful, grateful, and relieved that she’d be able to watch her daughter grow up, she knew in her heart it also represented the worst tragedy for someone else.

Dennis has taken that experience forward with her into a deep connection with the family of the girl whose lungs saved her life, and she hopes the blankets can act as warm, comfy bridges for others to do the same.

It was in 2020, during the pandemic when Dennis gave birth. Quickly thereafter her health deteriorated, and it wasn’t long in the hospital before her doctors had her on a waiting list for two lungs.

They were found, and the operation, a first for Henry Ford Health at the time, was successful. In the years that followed, she got to know the donor’s family, to a point where they enjoy a close connection.

“I’m lucky enough to have such a good relationship that I can send pictures of my daughter, I can send pictures of what my students are doing, and I get to show her the impact her daughter [the donor] has had on me—and her little sisters get to see that, and it’s so beautiful,” said Dennis.

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Last week, the teacher at Huron High School in New Boston, Michigan, organized a workshop to make comfort blankets to send off to the families of donors. Dennis said it’s not unusual that a donor’s family has not contact with the person who received a donation, and that the blankets can go a long way towards helping them understand the gratitude and warmth a recipient has for them.

WATCH the story below from CBS news…