Son gives kidney, gets wife

Friday, February 16, 2007

Son gives kidney, gets wife

Started dating nurse's aide after dad got his transplant

BY CHUCK MARTIN | CMARTIN@ENQUIRER.COM

Derek Rainier never thought he'd get a lifesaving kidney transplant and a new daughter-in-law in less than a year - from the same hospital.

But it will happen tonight, when his son, Cody, marries Melissa Montgomery. And it's mostly Derek's doing.

The Green Township man had suffered from diabetes and renal failure for several years and had a kidney transplant in 2004, but his body rejected it. He was in a coma for 10 days. Last year, doctors told Derek, 57, that the situation was grave if they didn't find another kidney soon.

"To be quite honest, I didn't think I had a lot of time left," Derek says.

His son, Cody, 22, had offered to donate a kidney before, but doctors discouraged it, saying it might cause health problems for him later in life. Finally, Cody insisted on donating the organ - writing a letter to his father.

"He's always been there for me, and I've never been able to pay him back," says Cody, who received an honorable discharge from the Marine Corps in order to be with his father after serving a year as a private first class.

"I thought I'd never be able to show how much I loved him, so I wasn't going to pass it up."

Derek initially discouraged his son from making the donation, but when he saw Cody's determination, he agreed.

June 2 - three weeks after the transplant - Derek returned to the hospital for routine tests. That's when he met Melissa, a young nurse's aide from Covedale.

He really liked her.

"I was kidding around with her and told her if she thought I was good-looking, she needed to meet my son," Derek says.

Melissa, 22, had never dated a patient's family member before but had a good feeling about Derek.

"He was friendly and had a good sense of humor," she says.

Derek told Cody about the bubbly young woman with brown hair and blue eyes, but the couple's paths never crossed at the hospital. Derek persisted until his son called Melissa five days later.

Their first date also happened to be Melissa's birthday, so Cody gave her a card - which might have cinched the relationship from the start.

That night, Cody woke up his father with an excited phone call.

"He told me I didn't owe him anything for the kidney, that I'd paid him back," Derek says. "I said: 'What do you mean?' Then he told me he'd just met Melissa."

To no one's surprise, the couple were engaged a few months later, in September. Tonight, before about 75 friends and family - less than nine months after they met - they'll say their vows at a church in Westwood.

Derek, whose health is improving daily, says he's usually not emotional. But he expects to shed a few tears at this wedding.

"Maybe the way this happened, there was some kind of divine intervention," he says.

Melissa will continue working as a nurse's aide, and like his father, Cody is in the real estate investment business. The couple will live in Covedale, but they have their sights set on fixing up an old Victorian house in Sayler Park.

Melissa fits right in with the family, Cody's mom, Beverly, says. She's a keeper.

"This has been a great year for us," she says, "after several awful years."

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/NEWS01/702160393