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. Today, he was to 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 today 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, and 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.
They have two adult children and four grandchildren.
