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Family of Slain Girl Sees Transplant Recipient Graduate

RUMFORD, Maine - The grandmother of a Pennsylvania girl shot to death four years ago says she was brought to tears at the high school graduation of a Maine teenager whose life was saved with a transplant of the girl's lungs.

Sheri Blackburn and her husband, Jim, of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, drove nearly 600 miles (965 kilometers) to watch Logan Hammer receive his diploma Thursday at Mountain Valley High School in Rumford, Maine.

Hammer was on oxygen full-time in 2013 when he received the life-saving donation from 10-year-old Aaliyah Boyer, of Manheim, Pennsylvania. She had died after being hit by a stray bullet fired during a New Year's Eve celebration in Elkton, Maryland.

Sheri Blackburn told the Sun Journal she wept as she saw the message scrawled on top of Hammer's cap: "Thank you Aaliyah.''