TONAWANDA, N.Y. — If you believe in destiny, then soon, you will understand why nothing could have stopped 55-year-old Tanya Guralny of Tonawanda and 58-year-old Janice Layman of Ashtabula, Ohio, from crossing paths.
"It was meant to be," Layman said.
Back in August of 2021, Guralny called Lamar Advertising, and the right person picked up.
"Every few months, we'll move her billboard to a different route," Kristen Calorico of Lamar said.
Thanks to Calorico's help, the billboard went up in Buffalo for 13 months. It even made it to Cleveland for a few weeks.
"As soon as I knew the billboard was going to go up, I just felt in my heart it was going to happen," Guralny said.
Within the first couple weeks that it was up in Western New York, it just so happened the right truck driver took notice.
"I was on the 190, and out of the corner of my eye, I just saw this billboard that said 'kidney needed,' " Layman said. "Something just said to me, 'You're a match,' and I knew I had to donate my kidney."
It was the first time Layman made a delivery in Niagara Falls. When she got home, an hour outside of Cleveland, she called Cleveland Clinic to get tested.
After about a year of playing the waiting game, on Sept. 13, 2022, she could give Tanya the one thing she was waiting for: a kidney.
In a video from the day they met, Guralny was in a hospital bed at Cleveland Clinic. When Layman entered the room, she began to cry and said, "Thank you so much, thank you so much. I don't know how to thank you. You saved my life."
Layman said, "It feels good. It just feels so good to have her in my life and knowing that I saved her life without feeling like I saved her life like I'm a hero. I don't feel that."
"You are my hero," Guralny said to Layman.
"I always tell her, 'I'm your incubator, I was just your kidney incubator for 50-plus years,' " Layman said.
It's almost been one year since they changed each other's lives forever and realized just how many similarities they share.
"It seems like you two have known each other forever," 2 On Your Side's Danielle Church told the pair.
"Yes, exactly," Guralny said.
"The nurse, Sherry, at the hospital was like 'oh you guys are going to love each other. You're the same person. You're the same person,'" Layman said.
If you believe in destiny, you know fate was always on their side.
"We just feel that this kidney is going to last her forever," Layman said.
"For the rest of my life," Guralny said.
"We're kidney sisters," Layman said. "We're on a mission to spread the word. People who have never thought about kidney donation should give it a hard thought... next to getting married and having kids and grandkids, this is one of the most special things I've ever done in my life."
"There are still people out there needing a living donor or a cadaver donor," Guralny said. "The need is still great."
"You can't physically do anything to save a life except organ donation and you have that ability and it's an amazing ability to have, so do it if you can," Layman said.