National Heart Month is hitting close to home for a Bridgeport woman whose father died of a heart attack Sunday.

Margaret Little, 41, says her world was turned upside down by the unexpected death of her father, Jesse Mims, a few days ago.

“I'm not looking forward to the service at all because I know that's going to be the last time that I physically see my dad and it hurts,” she says.

Little says her father, a certified nursing assistant, spent days working in the field of heart health.

"Seventy percent of the residents that he cared for in all of those years were cardiac patients,” says little. "The ones with the pacemakers and stuff like that, he took extra care of because he knew they needed the more attention."

She says it's ironic that a man who dedicated his life to caring for heart patients suffered a heart attack himself last week and died right in the middle of National Heart Month. She says it was because her father was a longtime heavy smoker.

However, Little says the timing of her dad's death gives her a special opportunity to share a powerful message.

"Please stop smoking in memory of my father Jesse Mims. If you smoke, stop,” she says. “It led up to his heart attack…because he smoked from the time he was 13 until he was 70, until the day he died. Please stop smoking."

Little says her father had a caring heart that touched every person he met, as letters from his patients show. She says she hopes that heart health will be an equal part of her father's legacy.