Organ donor's family meets recipients

Three families from across the country come together for the first time because of the one thing that will link them forever.

It was a remarkable meeting in Blissfield, Michigan on Tuesday. Three families from across the country, essentially strangers, come together for the first time because of the one thing that will link them forever.

Three years ago this week 35-year-old Roxanne Willnow of Adrian, Michigan, suddenly died from a brain aneurysm. Her husband and identical triplet sisters made the decision to donate her organs.

"We could not have imagined the blessing of organ donation the day we somehow found the strength to say yes," says Roxanne's sister Ronda Winans. Tuesday, for the first time, her family met two of the men who owe their lives to that decision.

Willie Washington, a 40-year-old from Ypsilanti, Michigan received one of Roxanne's kidneys. "We're connected and you can't break the bond anymore."

Willie Washington's wife Alberta says, "We have three kids. It's like they got their father back. I got my husband back."

Rey Candia of Texas received both of Roxanne's lungs. "The doctor told me that I had a year to live." The 66-year-old spent his days hooked up to an oxygen tank while waiting for a donor. But after he got the call and had surgery.

"Three days later, I woke up and I didn't need oxygen. I was walking. I walk a mile now in the mornings," says Rey.

Roxanne's daughter Jamie lit candles with Washington and Candia. They also held a sand ceremony symbolizing the union of the families.

Ronda: "Though I must admit Renee and I are a little more comfortable with this identical triplet thing. Adding you two to the mix feels a bit like calling Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger our twin brothers."

Willie: "I have a purpose. Even though I knew I had a purpose, there's a more intensified effort to do what I say I'm going to do; making sure that she stays alive."

Members of all three families will be at the second annual Roxanne Willnow blood donor drive on Thursday, November 12 from noon to 6:45 p.m. at Jasper Bible Church in Jasper, Michigan. They hope others will sign up to save lives on the very day Roxanne died, exactly three years ago.

There is an organ shortage across the country. More that 104,000 people in the U.S. are now waiting for an organ transplant. Every eleven minutes someone is added to the national waiting list. Every day, eighteen people die waiting.

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