There he goes now, here he starts.

This paraphrase of John Barlow’s lyrics for Bob Weir’s “Cassidy” is a fitting description of how the connection between Michael W. Murphy and Jordan Daniel Fors began.

Murphy died April 16, 2004, and his fiancee Diane Daffin set up a foundation to do good work in his name.

This year, one of the recipients of a grant from that foundation is Christine Fors. The Grove City woman is adopting a boy, whom she has named Jordan, from China and hopes to have him home by his 3rd birthday on April 17.

The realization that Jordan was born the day after Murphy died struck both Ms. Fors and Ms. Daffin.

“Serendipity,” Ms. Fors called it.

“I just think that things happen for a reason,” she said. “The people you meet come into your life at the time they’re supposed to.”

Ms. Daffin said it was amazing. Jordan also shares a birthday with her late father, Pete Daffin.

And she said one of the last things she and Murphy talked about was the new buds on a plant and how they represented new life.

“Maybe (Jordan)’s that new life,” said Ms. Daffin, adding that she knows who his guardian angel will be.

Ms. Daffin was on vacation when she got the call that Murphy had passed away, she said. He had an unknown heart condition and suffered an allergic reaction to some medication.

Murphy graduated from Sharon High School in 1974 and worked with Diane at Daffin’s Candies.

Though his death was a tragedy, Ms. Daffin said she wanted to do something positive in his memory.

Each year in August the foundation holds the Shamrock Scramble golf outing to raise funds; this year the foundation gave $4,000 in grants to local causes.

Ms. Fors was given $1,000 to put toward the cost of adopting Jordan, which is about $12,000.