My Promise to JT

My name is Selena Marie, and I am a proud donor mom to my son, Johnathan “JT,” a bright, loving, and loyal soul whose life and light continue to guide everything I do. When Johnathan passed, my world changed forever. He spent one week on life support, and during that sacred time, I held his hand, prayed for a miracle, and made a promise that his light would never fade. His final act of love through organ donation gave the gift of life to eight people. That moment of courage and compassion became the foundation for The Gift Beyond, a mission created to honor, remember, and celebrate lives that continue to matter beyond loss.

 

Johnathan Was the First

Johnathan was the first in our family to become a Life-Giving Hero, and the first brave hero of this mission. Through him, I came to understand the profound beauty of organ donation, from those who give in passing to those who give while living. Each act of donation carries courage, hope, and unconditional love, a decision made in humanity’s most sacred moments.

But I also came to understand what was missing.

In the darkest hours of my life, as I prepared to say goodbye to my son, my only instinct was to be with him. To hold his hand. To sit beside him. To spend every remaining second loving him. In the weight of grief, I did not know what I would later long for. I did not know to ask for ways to preserve his presence with dignity. I did not know how much I would one day need something tangible to hold, a handprint, a keepsake, a way to honor both the depth of my loss and the miracle his gift would become.

The comfort, guidance, and support families deserve in those moments did not exist.

So I created it.

From that realization, and from a promise made in grief and love, The Gift Beyond was born.

 

Expanding the Circle of Love

As I walked through my grief, I found myself sitting alongside other women mourning their children and a grandson. Like me. Like my mother. We met in shared sorrow, holding space for one another in ways only those who have lived this kind of loss can understand. We spoke our loved ones’ names. We cried together. We helped one another survive moments that felt impossible. When I shared my wearable with these women, something shifted. I saw it in their faces and felt it in the room. They understood what it meant to carry someone you love close to your heart. In that moment, I realized they might want the same thing too. A way to honor their loved one. A way to carry their memory forward. A tribute that spoke without explanation. We were guided by extraordinary facilitators who volunteered their time, compassion, and lived experience of loss to support us. Many of them had lost loved ones themselves. Their presence, generosity, and willingness to walk with us left a lasting imprint on my heart, and I carry deep gratitude for them. Through these shared moments, it became clear that remembrance should not be limited. Love does not belong to one story. Every life deserves to be honored.

That is why The Gift Beyond grew to include For All Loved Ones. This extension exists for parents, children, siblings, partners, grandparents, friends, and all who have lost someone who changed their world. It honors life not by how it ended, but by the love that remains and the legacy that continues.

 

Our Mission

The Gift Beyond exists to honor life giving organ donors, living donors, recipients, and all loved ones whose lives continue to matter through love and remembrance. Our mission is to ensure that no Life-Giving Hero is ever forgotten and no family faces loss alone. We do this through compassionate support, lasting remembrance, and meaningful ways to honor life during the most sacred moments of goodbye and beyond.

 

What We Provide

Life-Giving Hero Tribute Kits

Provided through partnerships with hospitals and organ procurement organizations, these kits are offered to families at the end of life. Each kit includes handprint materials, memorial keepsakes, and items designed to help families preserve their loved one’s presence with dignity and care during those final sacred hours.

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The Gift Beyond Tribute Collection

Thoughtfully created keepsakes designed to honor Life-Giving Heroes and loved ones, carrying memory and legacy forward with intention, reverence, and love.

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JT’s YESSIR Legacy Line

Symbolic wearables created to honor life giving heroes, living donors, recipients, donor families, and loved ones lost. Each piece is worn as a sign of respect, gratitude, and remembrance, while supporting the continued creation of free Tribute Kits for families in need.

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For All Loved Ones Collection

Created for anyone who has loved deeply and lost someone who changed their world. This collection honors parents, children, siblings, partners, grandparents, friends, and all loved ones through personalized keepsakes and wearable tributes. Each piece is designed with compassion and intention, offering families a way to remember, reflect, and carry their loved one’s presence forward with dignity and care. This collection was born from shared grief and connection, and exists to ensure that every life is honored, every story matters, and no love is left without a way to be remembered.

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Community and Support

A place of connection for families, recipients, and advocates who understand this journey and wish to honor life together. Through every service we offer, we support grieving families, honor courage, and create space for healing and connection.

This is more than remembrance. This is a promise kept. This is love that continues.

 

Our Vision

We envision a world where every Life-Giving Hero and every loved one lost is honored with dignity, love, and gratitude. A world where no family says goodbye alone. A world where Tribute Kits reach families in hospital rooms across the nation, offering comfort when it is needed most.

We envision living donors celebrated for their courage, recipients supported in honoring the heroes who gave them life, and families met with compassion and care. Through partnerships with hospitals and organ procurement organizations, we are building a movement centered on humanity, presence, and dignity. This is the world we are building. One life at a time. One family at a time. One act of love at a time.

 

JT’s Legacy Continues

Johnathan’s light did not end when he passed. It multiplied.

His heart now beats within a thirty-five-year-old man.
His liver brought new life to a forty-eight-year-old man.
One kidney gave strength to a thirty-year-old man.
The other gave hope to a sixteen-year-old boy.
His corneas restored sight.
His tissue continues to heal others through surgeries, recoveries, and life changing procedures that will reach far beyond this moment.

He gave life to people he never met.
And through them, his light still lives and breathes in this world.

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That living legacy continues in every family we support with a Life-Giving Hero Tribute Kit. It lives on in every YESSIR piece worn with intention and pride. It moves through every heart touched by the courage of donation and the power of love carried forward.

JT was the first Life Giving Hero in our family, but he is not the only light honored here. The Gift Beyond exists to hold space for every Life Giving Hero and every loved one remembered. For those who gave life through donation. For those who gave love through their presence.

For every life that changed another forever. Their light does not fade. It continues through us

 

My Purpose

Through every Tribute Kit placed into the hands of a family saying goodbye, every handprint preserved, every keepsake created, and every life honored, my purpose remains the same. To preserve love. To honor life. To bring light to loss. My son, Johnathan, is my reason and my forever purpose. The Gift Beyond is my promise to him kept. It is what I wished existed when I had to say goodbye. It is the care every family deserves. And now, it is our promise to you. Your loved one’s light will never stop shining. We will make sure of it. 

 

With love,
Selena Marie
Proud Mother and Founder The Gift Beyond

LLJT ☀️ In memory of my forever Sonshine, Johnathan "JT"