DAILY NEWS PHOTO/Marcelle Hanemann

A new family was born in the summer of 2009 when a man from Mississippi received a liver transplant from a Bogalusa man, who died suddenly at an early age. Last week, recipient Buddy Kelley expressed appreciation to the woman he now knows as “Mama Jewel.” Shown are, from left, Katherine Kelley, Jewel Byrd Vernon and Buddy Kelley.