A life cut short, but a ‘heart of gold’ that beats on

Justin Elzinga was magnetic.

He had a big, bright smile that drew people in.

And he was warm and funny — the kind of guy who could talk to anyone and had a million friends.

“He loved to make people laugh and smile. He loved to make people happy,” said his mom, Becky Elzinga. “That’s the kind of man he was.”

So it’s fitting that Justin, who died suddenly in January at age 20, found a way to keep shining and helping others even after his death.

He was an organ donor, and his heart, lungs, kidneys and liver saved the lives of four other people.

Bobby Nakihei, a 62-year-old Everett man, is among them.

Nakihei is doing well now, about seven months post-transplant. On Sunday, he’ll travel across the mountains to meet Justin’s family and learn about the man who gave him a second chance.

He’s a little nervous. Justin’s family is, too.

But they’re also excited.

Nakihei wants to say thank you, to express his deep gratitude.

The Elzingas want to hug the man who now has one of Justin’s kidneys and his heart.

“I want Bobby to know about Justin,” Becky said. “I want to tell him that he’s got a heart of gold.”

The meeting Sunday is happening at a barbecue — the kind Justin surely would have loved.

Many of the 20-year-old’s good pals and family members will be there, marking the waning of summer and celebrating as the young people head back to college soon.

Justin would have been with them.

A 2015 Kamiakin High graduate, he was packing to leave for Washington State University in Pullman when he had a brain aneurysm.

His father found him slumped in his room. He died Jan. 5 at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Justin excelled on the field and in the classroom at Kamiakin, and he led the Run Kano spirit group his senior year.

He attended WSU Tri-Cities after graduation and planned to study viticulture in Pullman. He wanted to own a winery one day.

He would have been so good at that, his family said.

At Kamiakin, Justin was “at the center of everything,” said Gabby Naccarato, his longtime girlfriend.

“He had the biggest heart. He was one of the biggest personalities at school,” she said.

Growing up, the Elzinga home was a gathering place for Justin and his friends. The boys would shoot hoops in the backyard, they’d shoot the breeze with Justin’s parents.

Justin was a good kid who never got into trouble, said his dad, Jeff Elzinga.

He had such a special way about him that other parents would sometimes joke they wanted to adopt him, the father recalled.

“‘We’d say, ‘No! He’s ours!’” Jeff said.

Nakihei, who’s originally from Hawaii, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation in about 2000, a few years after Justin was born.

His condition grew worse as time wore on, his kidneys weakening along with his heart because of the long illness.

Eventually, he was placed on the transplant list.

These days, he feels good, he told the Herald in a phone interview. At the hospital, he was called, “Miracle Man” because he started walking around just a couple days after the transplant.

Nakihei and his wife, Diana, own a Hawaiian restaurant in Everett, and the summer has been busy — full of weddings and other events.

They have two adult children and four grandchildren.

Nakihei said he’s so glad to have more time with them. He’s also sensitive to the fact that his second chance came because Justin’s life was cut short.

“It tore me up knowing that Justin was so young. I’m 62 going on 63, yet I have the chance to live even longer. We don’t know why,” Nakihei said.

“I’m so grateful. I don’t know whether I should call (the Elzingas) Mom and Dad. I’m older than them, but I have that legacy of their son in me. There’s no way I could have had a second chance if it wasn’t for Justin.”

In Hawaii, Nakihei said, people often use the word, “aloha.”

“It means a lot of different things,” he said. “For us, (the feeling we have for the Elzingas) is much aloha. It’s much love from me and my wife to them. From my kids, my grandkids.”

The Elzingas sat in the living room of their Kennewick home the other day, talking about their boy.

Gabby was there, too, and so was Justin’s older brother, Cody Beenken, who just had a baby girl named Madisen Justine.

The house was filled with photos of Justin — a portrait of him as a little boy, wearing a Sonics shirt and wide grin. A shot of him as a young man in front of his beloved truck.

A photo of him in his red Kamiakin cap and gown.

His bedroom is just as he left it, with a Seahawks rug on the floor and a LeBron James poster on the wall.

Losing him has been hard, his family said. So hard.

They didn’t know Justin had opted to be an organ donor, and they struggled with that at first as he lay in the hospital and donation officials kept approaching, they said.

They urge families to talk about end-of-life wishes. And to cherish each other, to say, “I love you” — just as they always did.

They’re proud that their special boy with a heart of gold has continued to do good, to help others.

“I think meeting with Bobby — it’s a big thing for me. I just want to reach out and hug him and put my hand on his heart. It’s going to help me,” Becky said.

“With two of Justin’s organs in him, he’ll do well. He’s going to be around for a long time. I want him to know that Justin is our hero. He saved four people’s lives,” she said. “I think that’s wonderful.”

This story was originally published August 5, 2017 at 3:15 PM with the headline "A life cut short, but a ‘heart of gold’ that beats on."