The marriage vows may seem heavy. I mean, why mention death at a wedding, right? “Till death do us part” sounds like something a little Macabre for a celebration of life and all that. While it may seem dark, for many, it’s their ultimate expression of love. For one couple, that vow turned out to not just change their life, but the husband’s ex-wife’s as well!
Debby Neal-Strickland and Jim Strickland had been dating for ten years after they met!
Ten years is a long time but in their situation, it makes sense. Jim had already been married once and after going through a divorce, marriage isn’t something that most people often hop back into very quickly.
A decade after their first date, Debby put on the famous dress and the two were married in a Florida church.
While we are sure the ceremony was lovely, that isn’t what this story is about. In fact, it really isn’t about Jim at all – it’s about his ex-wife, Mylaen. The two were married before Jim and Debbie were a thing and it was what happened after the wedding that made the news.
Two days after Debbie put on the dress to marry Jim, she put on a hospital gown to give one of her organs to her husband’s ex-wife.
We know! The story sounds so crazy that it could almost be on a television show or something. Mylaen, a 59-year-old woman, had been struggling through kidney disease and things were getting worse. In the last year, signs had began to show.
Her skin had turned pale white and she had bags under her eyes.
On top of her appearance, she was losing energy and couldn’t even get through the workday anymore. When she was finally admitted into the hospital, tests showed that her kidneys were only working at 8%.
Incredibly, Debby was the one who volunteered to donate.
Mylaen’s brother had originally offered, but after the gamut of tests, it was discovered that he wasn’t a match. Things were surely bleak for Mylaen – at least until Debbie volunteered her own body!
Things weren’t tense between the two either – it had been two decades!
As you can imagine, there wasn’t any bad blood between the two (in fact, they were about to share blood). Jim and Mylaen had been divorced for twenty years were cordial with one another. Mylaen was also about to become a grandmother for the first time and Debbie knew how important reaching that milestone really was.
On top of being a kind person, Debbie had also seen a similar story play out before.
Her brother had needed a lung transplant as he had cystic fibrosis. She offered one of her own but it wasn’t a match. He needed two and she had to slowly watch her brother pass away. Debbie wasn’t about to do that with a woman who was about to become a grandmother.
“It was the most amazing day of my life, until two days later. That was also the most amazing day of my life,” she said.
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