When Maria Clark’s son, Nicholas Peters, turned 18, he told his mother the happy news while doing a little happy dance. If anything happened to him, he told her to “spread him like the stars.”

Maria had no idea that four years later she would be fulfilling that request.

Nicholas was killed in a car accident two years ago when he was 25 years old. Maria decided to donate her son’s organs in response to his request.

“‘We can’t bury all of this magic that we have to share,’ I said.” Maria told “Good Morning America” that she has three surviving children.

Maria from Madisonville, Louisiana, called her son the “life of the party.”

“He was always a people person, always helping everyone, always going out of his way to make you feel special,” she said. “Everyone was on Team Nick.”

Maria donated Nicholas’ organs to people all over the country with the blessing of the entire family. Unbeknownst to her, one recipient was only three hours away.

Jean-Paul Marceaux, 14, of New Iberia, Louisiana, was on the waiting list for his second heart transplant in September 2020.

The now-seventh-grader contracted a virus when he was two years old and developed cardiomyopathy, which reduced his heart muscle’s ability to pump blood.

Jean-Paul received a heart transplant at the age of two after being on life support for six months while waiting for a new heart. However, his heart began to fail more than ten years later.

“When he got the first transplant, we knew the likelihood of him needing a second one was high,” Candace Armstrong, Jean Paul’s mother, said. “He was admitted to the hospital in June 2020.”

Jean-Paul spent the entire summer in the hospital fighting for his life until his family received the call they had been waiting for in September. They were informed that a heart for him was available.

“It’s such a contradiction because you’re hoping for it because it’ll save your son’s life, but you know what this is attached to,” Candace said, describing receiving the call as a “flood of emotions.”

“I know another mother is going through what I’ve been praying not to happen,” she added. “This is an extremely unusual situation.”

Maria was aware that Nicholas’ heart had been donated, but she didn’t know to whom.

Typically, families must wait a year before contacting the recipients. Contact can also be initiated by the donor’s family.

Candace never heard from Jean Paul’s first heart donor’s family, but less than a year after his second transplant, they received a letter from Maria in which they learned Nicholas’ name and face.

“Throughout the ten years that we have not received a response from our first hero’s family, we have continued to honor this family and this hero, but it is just not tangible.” We never wore a smile. “We had no idea who it was,” Candace explained. “It was the first time for us that Jean-Paul actually knew a person and connected with him and his family.”

Maria stated that she couldn’t wait an entire year to reconnect with the people her son had given new life. She also wanted to meet the recipients so she could “tell them about the life they had in them.”

“I wanted to know where his organs were,” Maria explained, explaining why she decided to contact the recipients right away. “I want to know that they’re fine, that they’re moving on with their lives and health.”

Following the letter, the two mothers immediately connected. They talked on the phone and communicated via text and Facebook. Candace also kept Maria informed of Jean Paul’s progress, including a video of him dancing at his first prom.

“‘Hi, Nick.” He understands. That’s Nick.” Maria recalled what she was thinking when she saw the clip. “That made me very happy.”

On May 14, the two families met in person in New Orleans. Candace and Jean-Paul also brought a stethoscope to their meeting so Maria could hear her son’s heartbeat.

“He walked in and just hugged me. “He hugged me tightly, just like Nick,” Maria recalled. “And then to hear the heartbeat, it was so powerful and alive.”

“It came through the stethoscope so strong, just beating like a drum,” she added. “I was so connected to him because he was so much like Nick.”

Candace said that Maria, her children, and her grandkids are now part of their family forever. They even have photos of Nicholas throughout their home, including one on a bookcase in her son’s room.

“We feel like we know him,” she said. “We talk about him, Nick like he’s part of his family, and he is. It’s not donor any more, it’s Nick.”

Both mothers hope that their story inspires others to consider becoming organ donors.

“Nobody wants to talk about what happens when somebody passes away. It’s an uncomfortable situation,” Candace said. “But it’s very important because someone like Jean-Paul, he wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for organ donation.”

Watch the emotional moment Maria hears Nicholas’ heartbeat in the video below.