It’s moments like these that Rachel Harper cherishes life — sharing her love of cooking with her two daughters, Africa and Shante. 

“I couldn’t even imagine not having these times with them,” Harper said. 

But her time was nearly cut short. In 2016, doctors diagnosed her with blood cancer. She struggled through chemotherapy, only to find a year later when she was cancer free, she had trouble walking.

“I couldn’t hold no food or water down. I couldn’t breathe. Every three steps I had to stop,” she said. 

Doctors at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center found Harper’s heart was weakening at a rapid pace. Her cardiologist, Dr. Kelly Axsom, said it was surgery or hospice.

“I was dying. Hospice is the end for most people. I was dying,” she said. “It was a lot. It was just too much at one time.”

Dr. Yoshifumi Naka, a NewYork-Presbyterian cardiac surgeon, implanted a heart pump to help Harper’s weakened heart. The device inside her heart held her up for three years, and she was able to experience the joy of becoming a first-time grandmother and watching one of her daughters get married. But then it stopped working. 

Her doctors got her on a list to get a heart transplant, and she was lucky enough to get one quickly.

“Heart transplant depends on how sick you are. Rachel was sick enough to be in the hospital to wait for her transplant, and it’s sometimes a little bit of luck — that’s not typical for somebody like her but can happen,” Axsom said.

Harper admits she was fearful of having a heart transplant, but understood it was necessary if she wanted to live.

“I was blessed, that was a blessing,” she said. “Oh my goodness, people wait in the hospital for months, two years, you know, and I wasn’t even there five days, and that heart was meant for me.”

Harper is getting ready to celebrate her three-year anniversary with her donated heart.

Even though she doesn’t know who donated the heart, she prays for the family who may still be grieving.

“I just want them to know that I am taking good care of this heart, and I appreciate it. It’s a gift from God,” she said. 

It’s a gift she’s hoping gives her many more years to enjoy her growing family.