Not a day has gone by that Lori Thomas hasn't thought about her son, Mitchell Thomas Schloesser, who died more than a year and a half ago.

"He was my firstborn and my only son," she said, and he was a loving and generous person.

"He was friends with people who didn't have any friends," said Heather Seckinger, Schloesser's fiancée.

So it was fitting that the registered organ donor saved the lives of four people in need when he died.

"It's been helpful in my grief to know my son has helped the lives of four people," Thomas said.

Seckinger said Schloesser, of Camarillo, was 29 when he died Dec. 19, 2006, after an accident at his sister's home during a celebration.

His heart went to a woman in Hawaii. His liver went to a woman in Arizona, who Seckinger said was a day or two away from dying. One of his kidneys went to a man in Florida. The other kidney went to Jim Talbot from Connecticut, whom Thomas, Seckinger and two of Schloesser's nieces — Angelina, 9, and Magnolia, 10 — will meet for the first time on Friday.

The family will travel to Pittsburgh, Pa., for the National Kidney Foundation's U.S. Transplant Games to see Talbot compete in bowling. The trip is being sponsored by OneLegacy, an organization that offers support programs to families of organ donors and transplant recipients in Southern California.

A news release from OneLegacy said the organization also is sending a Ventura County resident to compete in the games. Tom Henry from Ventura is a kidney transplant recipient who will compete in basketball, track and field and volleyball.

The event takes place every two years. The U.S. Transplant Games regulations state that eligible participants must have had a lifesaving organ transplant that has been functioning for at least six months.

Kari Kozuki, an aftercare specialist with OneLegacy, said Schloesser's family earned the sponsorship because of a letter Thomas wrote to the organization saying how important going to the transplant games would be for the family. Kozuki said Schloesser's family will be one of four donor families sent to the games by OneLegacy.

Thomas has been involved with the organization since her son died. When OneLegacy gave her information on her son's organ recipients, she wrote letters to all four of them; the Talbots were one of the three who responded. Thomas said she and Seckinger helped decorate the "Donate Life" float for this year's Tournament of Roses Parade. They participated in the Donate Life Run-Walk Family Festival in 2007 and 2008 along with Schloesser's nieces.

"It's been a comfort to me to be involved with OneLegacy," Thomas said.

Seckinger said she is excited to see one of Schloesser's kidney recipients who is healthy enough to bowl. To her, it confirms that the system works.

For Schloesser's mother, the trip is "bittersweet." She added she understands that some transplant recipients also go through an emotional recovery process after receiving a transplant, when they had been preparing to die.

"I hope it helps us both to heal more," she said.