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Mariana Villareal, a waitress at the local Hooters restaurant in Roswell, Georgia, had only been working at Hooters for about three months when agreed to donate one of her kidneys to one of their regular customers, Donald Thomas.
Thomas is a veteran from the Vietnam War, as well as a father of two children who has since lost his wife to breast cancer. He’s been going to his local Hooters for over ten years now, and all the employees at the restaurant even have a nickname for him when he comes in: “The DON!”
A few years after his wife’s death, Thomas was diagnosed with kidney failure. His doctors told him he wouldn’t have a chance of leading a normal life unless he received a kidney transplant.
That was where Villareal entered the story.
“Around the same time I met [Thomas], my grandmother was going through something similar, but I wasn’t able to help her and it will forever be in my heart,” she explained. But ever since then, she vowed that she would donate her kidney to someone else suffering from kidney failure at the first chance.
“I’ve been praying for God to answer me if donating one of my kidneys was the right thing to do and The Don was praying for a donor that may have never appeared. He sent me to this world to serve him and others and as a daughter of God I offered him one of my kidneys,” Villareal said.
“My higher calling maybe wasn't for my grandma but for a complete stranger.”
Thomas also chimed in with his side of the story. “Mariana had only been [at Hooters] a short time. I just barely knew her when she made the offer,” he began.
It was almost like any other conversation they would have that day about the food at Hooters, not their kidneys.
“I said, ‘Well I have two kidneys, do you want one of mine?’” Villareal recalled.
Thomas finished the conversation, “My reply was, ‘I will accept it.’”
What makes this story even more remarkable is that once Villareal had committed herself to making this donation, she went in to undergo tests and preparations at the hospital. That was when doctors discovered that she was an absolute “PERFECT” match for Thomas.
Not everyone is as thrilled as Villareal is about her donation though.
Some think she’s acting too hastily to help a complete stranger, one of her customers at work. Others wonder if she’s simply helping him because he tips her well at work, or if he’s trying to buy her kidney off of her.
But Villareal firmly insists otherwise. Thomas isn’t paying her at all for her kidney and she added, “Many people think I'm crazy because of the age difference but then again age is just a number, it's how young your heart is and your desire to live.”
On May 29, the duo went into surgery. Almost immediately afterward, doctors were happy to report that both patients were doing well and would make full recoveries.
Villareal is thrilled that she was finally able to fulfill her calling by donating her kidney to him. After Thomas had suffered two long years of undergoing dialysis three times a week, he would soon, once more, be able to live a normal life.
“I know God will give him way more years to come,” Villareal said after the surgery. “As for me, my kidney is still working like there’s 2 in there.”
Villareal hadn’t been expecting her story to become viral news, but she’s grateful for the attention because she hopes her story and act of generosity and love will encourage more people to put themselves on organ donor lists.
At the Georgia Transplant Foundation where Villareal had her work done, Dr. Chris Bond agreed, “A lot of people don’t realize how easy it is – relatively – to give someone a new life.”
Villareal will be out of commission for working at Hooters for another six weeks post-op, but both she and Thomas are eager to return to see each other. Just before the duo returned to their respective homes from the hospital, Villareal posted a photo of her and Thomas and captioned it, “He said he can’t wait to go back to Hooters.”
