By Helen Pow, Daily Mail
More than a year after a Texas woman underwent a lifesaving double lung transplant, she has met the family of the donor who made it possible.
Nancy Suarez Lee, 54, is alive today thanks to 26-year-old wife and mother Brittany Saucier, who was killed in 2011 in an freak accident in Mississippi.
And on Thursday, she was able to say thank you to Saucier's mother, younger sister and godmother in person for the incredible gift she received.
Emotional: Nancy Suarez Lee, right, of North Richland Hills, hugs Ellen DuVernay, second from right. while DuVernay's other daughter Kortney, left, hugs Lee's daughter Jessica, second from left
'I've been waiting for this day for a long time,' Lee told the Star-Telegram. 'I am about to meet the mother of my lungs. So that's just really kind of an amazing thing.'
The families had communicated for months through telephone calls, text messages and Facebook.
But Ellen DuVernay, Saucier's mother, still expected to be overwhelmed when her plane touched down at Dallas airport.
'I am sure we will both do some crying,' DuVernay said the day before flying out from Mississippi to meet Lee and her loved ones for the first time.
'But I feel like I am about to meet family.'
Lee was born with Hermansky-Pudlack Syndrome, a genetic, metabolic disorder that causes albinism and can lead to pulmonary fibrosis, which causes the lungs to become damaged or scarred and stop functioning properly, according to the newspaper.
Thankful: Nancy Suarez Lee, 54, right, is alive today thanks to 26-year-old wife and mother Brittany Saucier, who was killed in an accident in Mississippi
In 2010, her lungs started to fail and Lee, the mother of three adult children and a stepson, began to require oxygen.
Climbing stairs and showering became difficult, if not impossible, tasks for the human resources manager.
By June 2011, she was on the waiting list for new lungs at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Lee was still on the waiting list on September 20, 2011, the day that Saucier slipped from a golf cart she was riding in with her mother and her four-year-old daughter Mackenzie, hitting her head on the street.
Lee was still on the waiting list on September 20, 2011, the day that Saucier slipped from a golf cart she was riding in with her mother and her four-year-old daughter Mackenzie, hitting her head on the street.
She had a seizure and was rushed to hospital.
When it was clear that Saucier would not survive, DuVernay and her husband Larry learned that their daughter was an organ donor.
Sick: Lee was born with Hermansky-Pudlack Syndrome, a genetic, metabolic disorder that causes albinism and can lead to pulmonary fibrosis, which causes the lungs to become damaged or scarred and stop functioning properly
'She had always been so generous to others,' DuVernay told the Star-Telegram. 'And she was that way until the day she died.'
Hours later, surgeons were transplanting Saucier's lungs into Lee. The young woman's liver went to a father in Georgia. Her kidneys went to two men in Mississippi.
Lee knew nothing about her donor until a few months ago as transplant officials suggest that organ recipients wait for at least a year to contact a donor's family.
But it turned out DuVernay was writing a letter to Lee.
Lee got the letter in October and at dinner that night, with 13 relatives surrounding her, she read silently, tears in her eyes, sharing snippets aloud.
'She was a female ... Her name was Brittany ... She had a little girl,' she told them.
By the end, everyone at the table was in tears.
Donor: Brittany Lynn DuVernay Saucier, pictured, died in an accident but donated her lungs to Nancy Suarez Lee, saving her life
Saucier had long brown hair, green eyes and, her mother said, a beautiful smile.
She worked for an after-school care program at an elementary school. She was best friends with her sister, Kortney, 19.
She had been married for six years, and she loved to paint with her daughter.
'She was just wonderful,' DuVernay told the newspaper. 'She was a fantastic mom, and her life revolved around that child.'
Lee responded and the plan to meet in person was plotted.
At the airport, Lee's daughter Jessica, 24, spotted their guests arriving from their gate.
Near the same age as Saucier when she died, Jessica and Kortney, like their mothers, built a friendship through text messages and Facebook.
The families rushed toward each other silently. Lee and DuVernay wrapped themselves around each other in a long, tearful hug. Jessica and Kortney did the same, struggling to contain their emotions.
Both families, wiping tears, laughed.
'I'm overwhelmed,' DuVernay said.
'I'm so glad you're here,' Lee told her.
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