Dunedin couple tells unlikely organ donor story on Valentine's Day

DUNEDIN, Fla. - This Valentine's Day is extra special for a couple in Dunedin. 

Ray and Lori Rodriguez weren't sure the day would come after one of them was diagnosed with kidney disease and needed a life-saving transplant, but they soon learned the perfect donor match was not far away.

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Exactly 41 years ago, this Valentine's Day, Ray popped the question.

Lori and Ray married in 1983. 

"He just said, ‘Do you want to marry me?’ and I just looked at him, and I was like what," his wife Lori said.

But she said yes.

"I started sweating bullets when I asked her father for her hand in marriage," Ray said.

Lori and Ray married on August 30, 1983, which is a date that would later show to be pure fate, but after getting married, Ray--an army veteran--was diagnosed with a kidney disease. 

Doctors believe he may have contracted it while he was stationed in Guam. Over the years, his condition worsened and by the late 90s, he needed a new kidney.

Ray Rodriguez

"I don't know, somehow deep down inside, I knew that I was going to do it. I just kept telling myself that I was going to do it," Lori said. "And then when they told me I was a match, I was, you know, so excited."

On April 21, 1999, they had a successful kidney transplant.

"It's like thank you to Lori for giving me the gift of life," Ray said.

Most kidney transplants by a living donor last about 20–25 years. By 2017, Lori's kidney stopped working for Ray, so they started looking for a new donor putting up signs, making t-shirts, advertising on their car, and calling into radio stations. 

Lori and Ray in 2024

That's when John Hatfield, a complete stranger from South Carolina, heard Ray's plea and wanted to help. Sure enough, he was a perfect donor match.

Even more meant to be, he and his wife got married on the exact same day as Lori and Ray, August 30, 1983.

"I asked him, I said, ‘John, is this really the date of your wedding, your anniversary?’ He goes, ‘yeah, why?’ And I said, ‘ours is the exact day and year.’ And he's like, ‘no way’ said, ‘yeah, same,’" Lori said.

Ray and his new donor, John Hatfield 

The two couples get together every year around Thanksgiving to celebrate the gift of life and love. Lori and Ray are now major advocates for organ donation and the organization Life Link of Florida, which last year helped orchestrate 891 life-saving organ transplants in Tampa Bay.

"Giving the gift of life is like the ultimate gift to give. When you see a person thriving, that just means everything," Lori said.