Man With Suicide Victim's Heart Kills Self

[Miranda]

April. 6, 2008

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. - A man who received a heart transplant 12 years ago and later married the donor's widow died the same way the donor did, authorities said: of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No foul play was suspected in 69-year-old Sonny Graham's death at his Vidalia, Ga., home, investigators said. He was found Tuesday in a utility building in his backyard with a single shotgun wound to the throat, said Greg Harvey, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Graham, who was director of the Heritage golf tournament at Sea Pines from 1979 to 1983, was on the verge of congestive heart failure in 1995 when he got a call that a heart was available in Charleston.

That heart was from Terry Cottle, 33, who had shot himself, Berkeley County Coroner Glenn Rhoad said.

Grateful for his new heart, Graham began writing letters to the donor's family to thank them. In January 1997, Graham met his donor's widow, Cheryl Cottle, then 28, in Charleston.

"I felt like I had known her for years," Graham told The (Hilton Head) Island Packet for a story in 2006. "I couldn't keep my eyes off her. I just stared."

In 2001, Graham bought a home for Cottle and her four children in Vidalia. Three years later, they were married after Graham retired from his job as a plant manager for Hargray Communications in Hilton Head.

From their previous marriages, the couple had six children and six grandchildren scattered across South Carolina and Georgia.

Cheryl Graham, now 39, has worked at several hospices in Vidalia. A telephone message left Sunday at a listing for Cheryl and Sonny Graham in Vidalia was not immediately returned.

Sonny Graham's friends said he would be remembered for his willingness to help people.

"Any time someone had a problem, the first reaction was, 'Call Sonny Graham,' " said Bill Carson, Graham's friend for more than 40 years. "It didn't matter whether you had a flat tire on the side of the road or your washing machine didn't work. He didn't even have to know you to help you."

2008 The Associated Press

[Msterbeau]

Wonder what troubled him enough to commit suicide?

[torn asunder]

Wonder what troubled him enough to commit suicide?

well, the two common pieces are, the heart, and the wife...

i'm guessing it was the wife!

(just kiding, gang...)

[Rev.Reverence]

I've a theory to share... there's a movie about this scenario, but the donor is a murderer...

I heard of the theory years ago, but the movie is new...

the theory it works off of is called cellular memory....

(some people who try to fuse science and spirituality came up with it...)

I think science has gone to far and the universal consciousness is striking back...

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Perhaps the Egyptians were right.

[Hellion]

I've a theory to share... there's a movie about this scenario, but the donor is a murderer...

I heard of the theory years ago, but the movie is new...

the theory it works off of is called cellular memory....

(some people who try to fuse science and spirituality came up with it...)

I think science has gone to far and the universal consciousness is striking back...

I did see a movie or half hour skit about a guy who had an eye transplant and found out the eye came from a convicted killer,he then started to act like the killer,until he basically poked out his eye,to keep him from killin someone.

[~Tszura~]

I've a theory to share... there's a movie about this scenario, but the donor is a murderer...

I heard of the theory years ago, but the movie is new...

the theory it works off of is called cellular memory....

(some people who try to fuse science and spirituality came up with it...)

I think science has gone to far and the universal consciousness is striking back...

I think I'm between cellular memory, and psychology. Maybe subconsciously he fell into identifying with the donor so much that he landed in the same pitfalls. But I think I'm more on the side of cellular memory.

Our bodies hold onto trauma until we release it somehow.

[Onyx]

Regarding cellular memory and organ donors -- there is mounting evidence of this in many cases of organ donation. It used to be a very closely guarded thing, and years ago they would not ever allow the families and donor to know each other's identity. Very interesting info has come out since they began allowing this information to be released.

but damn - same wife and two suicides? does make you wonder what sort of personality she has! (can't help it - yiikes)

[Homicidalheathen]

I read someplace that they discovered neuro cells in the heart (finally) and that we 'think' feel with it....so this does not surprise me.

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/JCP99.html

makes for a good movie script

The idea that we can think with our hearts is no longer just a metaphor, but is, in fact, a very real phenomenon. We now know this because the combined research of two or three fields is proving that the heart is the major center of intelligence in human beings. Molecular biologists have discovered that the heart is the body's most important endocrine gland. In response to our experience of the world, it produces and releases a major hormone, ANF -- which stands for Atriol Neuriatic Factor -- that profoundly effects every operation in the limbic structure, or what we refer to as the "emotional brain."

[jadnifer]

This is a very sad thing. Regardless of the circumstances, it's sad to hear of a person committing suicide. It means that they lost their life before they were really meant to.

I don't where I stand on whether or not organs have memory and if it could have affected him that much to the point where he committed suicide like the original owner. I would think that his brain would have taken over in this situation even if his heart did have some kind of a memory.

As far contact is concerned with donors having contact with the person that got the donation, I think that the person that received the donation should be able to write a thank you letter but that should be the extent of the contact.

[freydis]

(some people who try to fuse science and spirituality came up with it...)

Actually, they were pushing the idea of "genetic memory", the difference being that the memory (as they were positing) wasnt in the cells, but the genetic code itself.

Personally, I think it doesnt have much merit (genetic memory, not cellular). I think the answers are a little.....simpler.

[TygerLili]

well, the two common pieces are, the heart, and the wife...

i'm guessing it was the wife!

(just kiding, gang...)

I know you meant that as a joke, but it does make one wonder...