Bride Feels the Heartbeat of Missing Father on her Wedding Day

The husband of 1974 SHS graduate Nancy Thomas, formerly Nancy Ughetta, made national headlines this weekend when he gave a Pennsylvania bride away at a most unusual ceremony.

Ten years ago, Arthur Thomas, known as Tommy, received the heart of the bride's father, when her dad was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in 2006. The family decided to donate his organs, and Tommy, who was near death at the time, was moved to the top of the transplant list to be the recipient. He was suffering from congestive heart failure and was in dire need of a new heart. The donation has allowed him to live through a decade of seeing his own four children graduate from high school and college – and he hopes to be at their weddings.

Tommy also wanted to be there for the daughter of the man who made it all possible. So when the murdered man's daughter, Jeni Stepien, wrote to ask him to walk her down the aisle, he was honored to travel to Pennsylvania to give her away.

According to the story, when the 72 year-old Tommy arrived at the church, he took Jeni's fingers and placed them on his wrist and said, "Here, feel my pulse," allowing her to feel her own father's heartbeat. The next day, after he led her down the aisle, Jeni impulsively reached up to touch his chest before he gave her away.

Thomas is a retired college advisor at the Lawrenceville School in Princeton, NJ where he worked with his wife Nancy who is the Dean of Campus Life at the school. Anne Lyons, (SHS '80) formerly Anne Ughetta, is Tommy's sister-in-law, and lives in Scarsdale today.