Ariz. taxi driver offers kidney to frequent passenger

PHOENIX (AP) — Rita Van Loenen had no idea that a trip in Thomas Chappell’s taxi cab could end up being the ride that saves her life.

“There are better odds of getting struck by lightning,” Van Loenen said. “A random taxi driver offering to give me his kidney and all these pieces match. There has to be something behind this. How can this be?”

Chappell, who has been driving Van Loenen to dialysis appointments, shocked the Gilbert, Ariz. woman a month ago by offering to donate his kidney. But even more shocking to her was that doctors found they had the same blood type, that they were compatible.

“He calls me all excited. If we were a closer match, we would’ve been siblings. I was ready to fall off the floor,” Van Loenen said.

The Phoenix taxi driver said he was a man of faith and that a higher power wanted him to step in.

“By then, me and the good Lord already had a talk. He said ‘Tom, you go give her one. It will work,’ ” Chappell said.

Last year, Van Loenen, an instructor in special education methods, began feeling ill and experiencing water retention in her legs. She went to see a doctor and was diagnosed with kidney disease. With kidney failure setting in, friends and family were tested but there was no match.

In February, she received her cousin’s kidney but that transplant failed. One day, Van Loenen, 63, found herself telling Chappell, 56, about how her son was now going to get tested. Chappell decided to add his name to the list.

“I said ‘Rita, your son’s a whole lot younger than me. He’s got a lot more years. I’m gonna go down and go through the process and see if it will work.’ I don’t think she really believed I was going to.”

And then there was sight!

After spending three years in the dark, a 90-year-old great-great-grandfather from Oregonwho had been declared legally blind claims he’s suddenly regained much of his sight.

“God never treated anybody as good as he’s treated me,”Marty Alvey told the Daily News, three days after his vision inexplicably returned.

“When I got out of bed this morning, I looked into the mirror, and I said, ‘Hello there, Marty, nice to see you.’”

Alvey had given up reading and was forced to watch TV from a distance of 6 inches after being stricken with macular degeneration, which causes the loss of central vision.

Now the retired carpenter is hoping to go on sightseeing trips throughout the Northwest and possibly meet “a nice young gal, about 80 years old.”

“I’ve been reborn,” Alvey said, noting he can see clearly 5 feet ahead.

Alvey’s transformation came early Saturday after he awoke feeling woozy. After getting stuck in the bathroom, he crawled to his phone and called 911. On the way to the hospital, Alvey started feeling better.

When a doctor walked into his room, Alvey says he realized his vision had improved.

“He started talking to me, and I said, ‘You know, I can see you! I can see you!’” Alvey recalled. “I went crazy, completely crazy.”

A pair of ophthalmologists examined Alvey’s eyes two days ago and found no explanation for his improved vision.

“There are no anatomical changes within the eye to account for his subjective visual improvement,” saidDr. Anthony Cirino, of Kaiser Permanentein Portland, noting that Alvey’s performance on an eye exam showed no improvement. “From my standpoint, I can’t explain it.”

Alvey has spent the past few days tidying up his home in Tualatin, a suburb of Portland. The feisty nonagenarian has also relished gazing at photos of his five children and numerous grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren – and greeting his neighbors.

“Now when I meet people, I say, ‘Good morning, nice to see you,’ and I really mean it,” Alvey said. “Some people think I’m an old ding-a-ling, but that’s okay. I can see.”

YouTube wedding video inspires a fun trend

The wedding party is morphing into the surprise party.

There are events advertised as mere cocktail parties until, poof! A preacher appears and the host and hostess swap vows between sips of Champagne. There are receptions that feature a bride and groom swaying to something syrupy likeUnchained Melody until, screech! The tame track abruptly quits and, after a beat, the couple bust into something a little more saucy, like Baby Got Back. (A video of that bait-and-switch moment has garnered more than 8 million views on YouTube since 2007.)

And then there’s the prancing processional played round the world — more than 10 million YouTube hits since July 19 — in which a couple and their attendants fist-pump and handstand their way down a St. Paul church aisle to Chris Brown’sForever.

“This element of surprise to entertain your guests is certainly a trend,” says Modern Bride editor in chief Antonia van der Meer. But recession-era wow weddings aren’t punctuated with five-tier wedding cakes and 5-foot ice sculptures. “The feel-good moment is especially important to people right now,” and, “happily,” choreographed dances don’t cost anything (minus the time and energy invested for practice). “So I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw more of it.”