'Fantastic, emotional:' Organ recipient, widower of WRAL employee meet

When Page Calloway met Simanskis' husband, Ed Simanskis, it was a given that there would be hugs and tears.

"Before the transplant I was just tired all the time and just sick all the time and couldn't really participate," Calloway said.

With her kidney function at 12 percent, Calloway says she was not really living, spending more than nine hours a day on dialysis. She was on the long list to receive a kidney donation.

Then came the call. There was a match.

"I couldn't even process the fact that I was getting the call because I was told, you know, it was going to be so long," she said.

Still, the moment was bittersweet.

"You're thanking God that he's allowed this, you know, amazing thing to happen in your life and that he's allowed all these many people that prayed for you, for these prayers to be answered," Calloway said. "But then at the same time, you're knowing that somebody just lost somebody that was very special to them, and that this is costing somebody else a lot."

After her recovery, Calloway reached out to the Simanskis family online to thank them.

"It blew my mind what she said in that message," Ed Simanskis said.

She wrote, in part: "I’m able to actually live and be a wife, mother and grandmother again. I know this in no way lessons your loss or pain but I wanted you to know her gift saved me. Her gift gave me life. Her gift gave me back to my family and there will never be a way to thank her or God enough for what they did in my life."

They met for the first time at the WRAL Studios in Raleigh on Monday.

The visit, he said, was "fantastic but also emotional."

"Just listening to Page brought a smile to my face," Ed Simanskis said. "Just the amount of joy and happiness that Erin's donation made is just, it's fantastic. It's out of this world – some good can come out of something so tragic."

With the kidney transplant, Calloway can truly interact with her family and work again. She said she owes it all to Erin Simanskis.

"She was just full of life," Calloway said. "She's a beautiful person, and it's just such a gift to have a small piece of her."

Ed Simanskis is hoping his wife's kidney will turn Calloway into a passionate Hurricanes' fan, just like Erin was.