Just 2 days after her wedding, woman donates kidney to husband’s ex-wife for heart-melting reason

Love makes us do selflessly crazy things. Actions inspired out of love are often the most courageous, unexpected and heart-melting ones. A gesture of the like was expressed out of love by Debby Neal-Strickland Merthe when she donated her kidney, per PEOPLE. However, the woman who was madly in love with Jim Merthe didn’t do the selfless act for her new husband but for another special person. Debby admitted herself to the hospital two days after she married Jim to help his ex-wife, Mylaen Anderson-Merthe. Her reason behind the same makes this story even more heartwarming. 

Debby and Jim had been waiting to seal the deal with marriage for quite sometime. However, some or the other festivities or delays kept postponing the event. Finally, despite COVID restrictions, the couple was finally able to have their big day. Debby and Mylaen had been buddies for quite some time. Right from the time she was dating Jim, there was a mutual understanding between the two women and they seemed to adjust to this unusual yet delightful turn of events. Jim’s ex-wife had been suffering kidney issues for the last three decades. When Debby realized no family member but her matched for the donation, she gladly stepped in. 

So, soon after the wedding, the newly weds got right down to work and Debby and Mylaen were soon out after a successful surgery. "I thought it was a little strange. But I also know if Debby says she's going to do something, she'll do it,” the newly wed man remarked. Speaking of her will to make this grand gesture, Debby notes that she wouldn’t have it any other way. She was eager to have Mylaen join her as part of the family with the kids and grandkids, making it one big familial bond of love. "I said, 'Mylaen's going to be an awesome grandmother and this has to be done. I knew she was worth it and I knew we had to make it work,” she remarked.

Myalaen added that things just worked out from the very beginning. "If Jim and I were meant to be together, Debby would've never come along and I wouldn't have had a donor. This was all meant to be,” she said. Debby further connected the whole story, especially her connection with Jim to be for this greater purpose. "I always said if I could ever do anything about somebody that needed an organ, I was going to do it. It all made sense. I felt like Jim was my destiny until I found out about Mylaen needing my kidney. Then I felt like she's my destiny too,” she noted.

The duo are now “Kidney sisters” and even have chain tags to proudly flaunt the same. "Neither one of us has sisters and now we're connected forever. She’s given me all I’ve ever wanted,” Mylaen said. “She’s my life-saver,” Mylaen remarked, per Inside Edition. “I just felt a lot alive, that’s how quick it worked,” she added. A story that has the most wholesome ending indeed! “It’s a very selfless thing to do, the family is really blessed to have her in our lives,” Mylaen’s son remarked.