Click the play button on the video window to the see the storyPHOENIX -- Six days after ABC15 told the story of a Valley cab driver giving up his kidney to save a customer, he received a phone call from his estranged daughter who he hadn't seen in 31 years.
"All I could do is cry," said Thomas Chappell, a cab driver for VIP Taxi.
After a divorce, Chappell said his ex-wife disappeared with their two children.
His son lives in the Valley, but he hadn't seen his now 36-year-old daughter for more than three decades.
"I'd have gave my whole body to see her and all it cost me was a kidney, no big deal," he said.
Now, Chappell said both talk nightly, mostly about his four new grandchildren.
Chappell said he first got the idea to donate his kidney to a dialysis patient after he had been driving her to and from her appointments for nearly a month.
But the two didn't start off on very friendly terms.
"I guess I was 30 minutes late and she was real upset," said Chappell. "The next day it just so happens I get her again."
Somehow, Rita VanLoenen became a regular pick-up.
One month later, "The Lord spoke to me, he says 'Tom, you give her a kidney' and I never argue with what the Lord tells me," he said.
Calling him her guardian angel, Rita said that in every cab ride, Thomas must have been listening.
"Tom knows how I suffer and how I feel, I'm so sick sometimes," she said.
"I said Rita, the Lord has told me to give you a kidney," said Chappell.
Unsure if he was serious or if he'd even be a match, they started the tests.
"Our blood mixed perfectly," said the cab driver.
"And he said I guess the Lord has something special for you to do, there's probably a lot more you have to do in your life," said Rita.
Thomas said he has already taken off six days of work for the testing, and the transplant hasn't even happened yet.
He plans another four weeks off after the kidney transplant sometime this fall and said he asks nothing in return.
"The Lord will provide," he said, "I've heard people say there's no miracles no more, it's not true."
To prove his point, he said giving up his kidney may be seen as a cross to bear, but he said what's more important is helping someone in need of more time in this life.
"I'm going to pay it back in some way,"said Rita.
Rita has set-up an account at Chase Bank to help her cab driver with expenses.
She said just ask for the Rita VanLoenen account and all of the money raised will go to the cab driver to help with expenses during his recovery.
