Jack and Arlene Locicero have probably told the story of how they donated their daughter Amy’s organs a hundred times, but still the telling never gets any easier.

“Sometimes my husband makes it through, and sometimes he doesn’t,” said Mrs. Locicero during a recent visit to Bermuda. The New Jersey couple gave a speech for the Bermuda Organ and Tissue Donor Association last Wednesday evening.

“We give talks and workshops about organ and tissue donation,” said Mr. Locicero. “We have probably spoken with over 6,000 people over the years. Nurses are the worst audience. As soon as they hear the name ‘Amy’ they get teary.”

Their daughter Amy Federici, 27, was an up-and-coming interior decorator who had worked for MTV, among other places. On December 7, 1993 a lone gunman boarded a busy evening rush-hour train on the Long Island Railroad and fired 15 rounds with a Ruger 9 mm. semi-automatic pistol. Before the gunman, Colin Ferguson, was tackled by other commuters, he managed to wound 19 people and kill six. Mrs. Federici was the last one shot.

Four of Ferguson’s victims died instantly. Mrs. Federici, who was shot in the back of the neck, lingered on life support in a New York Hospital. Her carotid artery had been severed. She went into cardiac arrest. Because she lost vast amounts of blood, her brain was oxygen deprived for over half an hour.

“When we first saw her she looked just like she was sleeping, except that her face was swollen and there was blood in her fingernails,” said Mr. Locicero.

Medical tests found no brain activity. Before an official diagnosis of brain-death could be made, New York state law required that Mrs. Federici’s life support be turned off twice within a 24-hour period.

The Lociceros made the heart-wrenching decision to donate their daughter’s organs so that others could live.

“We were familiar with organ transplant,” said Mr. Locicero. “A friend had had a liver transplant. Amy’s husband Gary was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer, and died three months after they were married.”

Amy’s heart, kidneys and liver were donated to people in desperate need. Unfortunately, the woman who received the liver did not make it. It was a risk that the Lociceros knew about when they agreed to the transplants.

“The liver went to a woman who was very ill,” said Mrs. Locicero. “Livers are not easy to be transplanted and maintained. We lost her. She developed a respiratory infection. The other transplants worked.”

Normally, donors would never know the identities of the people who received their loved ones organs. In this case, however, through various twists of fate, and a little help from the American media, the Lociceros met the two people who received their daughters heart and kidneys.

The lady who received Amy’s heart, 70-year-old Theresa Carvellha, mother of seven, became particularly dear to the Lociceros. She attended the Locicero’s younger daughter’s wedding.

“Mrs. Carvellha was her own person,” said Mrs. Locicero. “She was feisty as she got older. She had a number of physical problems.

“You can not be a recipient, undergoing the meds that are necessary without problems.”

Every year on Mother’s Day Mrs. Carvellha would send Mrs. Locicero flowers and a card saying, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, from Amy’s Heart’. She also shared with Mrs. Locicero ultrasound images of Amy’s heart still beating in her chest.

“Sadly, she passed away last November,” said Mr. Locicero. “We’ll miss her.”

They also met Jerry Bradley, the man who was given one of Amy’s kidneys. They also had a relationship with him, and he also passed away.

The Lociceros first began telling their story at support group meetings.

“Going back ten years, we were telling our story at a support group, and one of the people there was a heart transplant recipient,” said Mr. Locicero.

The heart transplant recipient urged the Lociceros to go public with their story, so that other people would be encouraged to donate the organs and tissue of their deceased loved ones.

Mr. Locicero is a retired shop teacher, and Mrs. Locicero is a retired English teacher.

“It is important to get people to understand that transplants save lives,” said Mrs. Locicero. “That is the issue.”

Watching news reports about the Virginia Tech shootings where 32 students and teachers were killed by a gunman, has brought back to the couple what happened to Amy.

The massacres are so similar in nature. In the case of the Long Island Train, the shooter was sentenced to 200 years in jail. “It certainly hurts to watch,” said Mrs. Locicero. “No matter where violence occurs, the impact is for a lifetime. It never goes away. People say, ‘let’s pass it over and get on with things’. Whatever that is supposed to mean, I don’t know. They say, ‘Oh, you don’t have closure yet?’ No. ‘Will you ever have closure?’ No. ‘Will we be able to live?’ Yes.”

For the Lociceros their religious faith has often got them through the hard times, and given them the strength to go on. “In our case we are Christian folks, and our Saviour is clear to us through scripture,” said Mrs. Locicero. “We will see our child again.”