Anyone who doesn't believe a chance meeting can change your life should talk to Debbie Tallent.

The 51-year-old mother of two from Baytown, Texas, never thought when she took her eldest daughter Kimberly to visit Hendrix College last year that she would meet someone who would give her the most precious gift of all -- the gift of life.

Kimberly Tallent, now 19, visited Hendrix, in Conway, Arkansas, with her family last June. The then-senior high-school softball player was looking at colleges and went to tour the campus and meet with coach Amy Weaver. The campus visit had to be arranged around Debbie's dialysis treatments, which were taking place three times a week for four hours each session.

Weaver, 36, said after she met the Tallent family she began asking Debbie questions about her condition. She happened to ask what Debbie's blood type was and upon finding out it was the same as hers -- O positive -- Weaver decided to get tested to see if her kidney would be a match for Debbie.

Debbie said she and her family were shocked, to say the least, that Weaver would even consider donating her kidney to a virtual stranger. Potential candidates inside and outside of Debbie's family couldn't be tested because of health problems or personal issues they were experiencing.

"We're all going, 'Did we hear what she said?' " Debbie recalled. "You want to hear that for so long and then somebody finally says that. It was really a shock."

Weaver said after going through testing, and finding out she was a match, there was never any question in her mind that she would donate her kidney to Debbie.

"It was just one of those things. I felt it was supposed to happen," Weaver said. "Things happen for a reason and if it's meant to be, it's supposed to happen and once I determined that we were a match, that they could use my kidney, it really wasn't any question."

Debbie said that Kimberly almost didn't even visit Hendrix College. Her daughter, she said, had been looking to stay close to home but was convinced to check out Hendrix by a friend and the friend's father, who also was one of her coaches. Debbie said it took about two months to convince her daughter to visit the college, which is about eight hours away from her home in Texas.

"We went up there and (Kimberly) turned about and told us when we got through looking at the college and meeting the coach that she liked this place and she really liked coach Weaver and she wanted to go there," Debbie said. "I just think it was meant to be."

Kimberly, now a freshman at Hendrix and a member of the school's softball team, said she was surprised when Weaver said she would donate her kidney to her mother.

"She's a really nice person," she said of her coach. "It was just really nice."

Debbie had been sick on and off since 1995 with kidney problems. In 2000, a viral infection in her heart caused her kidneys to weaken and a shunt was put in her arm with the intention of starting dialysis. Her kidney function recovered, and it wasn't until March 2002 that she was forced to start dialysis when her kidney function was reduced to about 10 to 20 percent.

Debbie was put on the national donor list on November 8, 2002, and was told she likely would have to wait up to two years for a new kidney. Until then, the hope was dialysis would keep the organs functioning.

In all, it took a year and nine months for a donor to be found.

Surgery took place about two months ago, on December 12, 2003, at St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, and both women say they are doing well.

"I'm feeling OK," Weaver said, having recently resumed softball practice. "I notice that I get kind of tired. I can tell when I've done too much, but for the most part, I feel great."

Debbie said she feels like a different person since the surgery. For four weeks after the operation, she couldn't go out in public and had to wear a mask, for fear of infection. Now, however, she's been cleared to drive and is looking forward to returning to work.

"I have a lot more energy; it's totally different, and my color has changed and come back," she said. "Even when I woke up (from surgery), I felt so good."

Debbie remembers that when she woke up the first thing she asked the nurse was how Weaver was doing.

"The nurse looked at me and said, 'Well, usually the recipient doesn't ask about the donor,' " Debbie said. "I said, 'Well, this one's different. This one's special.' "

Weaver said even if Kimberly had not come to Hendrix, she would have gone through with the kidney donation, though colleagues joke with her that it's a great recruiting tool for the Division III school. She also said she never wanted the notoriety that has come with her selfless act; she just wanted to help out someone in need.

As for Debbie, she calls Weaver an angel.

"I just think Amy's an amazing person," she said. "I just think it was meant to be. I don't know how I could ever repay her."