family was as eager to connect as she was. One donor, she learned, had his own, remarkable story.

Adrian Rodriguez, was an 18-year-old high school senior, a charmer with a passion for cooking.

Diana Rodriguez's only son, Adrian, thrived at the Marta Valle High School on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which was a long commute from his home in the Bronx but had the courses he wanted. Mimi Fortunato was the school principal when Adrian attended and has fond memories of him.

"The first time I met Adrian, he bounced into my office with a tray of pastries in hand and beautiful cucumber salad in the other and said, 'good morning, Miss Mimi, I am Chef Adrian,' and I thought he was the culinary arts teacher," she said.

Adrian went on tocreate his own cooking show, which he recorded in the school's teaching kitchen. Dexter Hannibal, the school's college advisor helped Adrian apply for scholarships to culinary schools.

"When you saw him, he was always in his chef outfit, in black pants, always," he said.

Life was good. Adrian had his eye on the future and was committed to his dream of becoming a professional chef. But on April 1, 2011, tragedy struck. His mother said Adrian left for school wearing new shoes that day. It's believed Adrian slipped and fell on the subway platform as the train pulled in, and the train clipped his head. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where his mother said she waited six hours to see him.

"[The doctor] told me that he was in bad