Terry Cottle committed suicide in 1995,his heart was donated for organ transplant. The recipient was Sonny Graham, who was on the verge of congestive heart failure. 12 years after Graham received Cottle's heart, he committed suicide in the same manner.
That heart belonged to Terry Cottle, 33, who had committed suicide by shooting himself and was put on life support at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, so that his organ could be donated to Graham.
Graham immediately went to the hospital and the organ was transplanted that day. Graham did not know Cottle's identity, he only knew that the heart of a 33 year old South Carolina man had saved his life.
In 1996, Graham contacted the organ donation agency because he wanted thank Cottle's family for the gift of life. Letters were exchanged via the organ donation agency between Graham and Terry Cottle's widow, Cheryl. Two months later, in 1997, they arranged a meeting.
In 2000, Graham bought a home for Cheryl Cottle and her four children, in Vadalia, Ga., approximately 130 miles west of his Hilton Head home and by 2004 they were married. He left his Hilton Head home and moved in with Cheryl.
A little more than 12 years after receiving Terry Cottle's heart and eventually ending up with Cottle's wife and family, Sonny Graham was found in a utility building in his backyard after shooting himself with a shotgun to the throat.
His autopsy showed no foul play and ruled it a suicide, the same method as his heart donor had died.
Two men, one heart, one wife, both died by the very same method of suicide.
Sonny Graham was laid to rest on Friday, in Lyons Georgia.
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