The widow of a local Sailor now has a connection to her husband, through a Mt. Carmel High School teen who received the Marine's donated kidney.
After four years of dialysis and hospital visits, 17-year-old Salma Al-Hinn received a long-awaited transplant kidney.
The successful transplant was first reported by NBC 7 San Diego, after Al-Hinn celebrated her graduation at Rady's Children's Hospital.
Yvonne Azalea Nosik lost her husband, Kenneth Andrew Nosik, earlier this month. Yvonne saw the segment about Al-Hinn and knew the teen must have received her husband's donated kidney.
Al-Hinn's mother attended Kenneth's funeral Monday. She was one of very few mourners in attendance, as Kenneth's family couldn't afford to attend, and his friends were all deployed on the USS Vandergrift.
The struggle to find enough people to honor her husband's life appeared on Craigslist, where she went searching for six Navy men to serve as pallbearers.
"I got desperate and turned to Craigslist," she wrote. "I met my husband on this site. May he rest in peace."
The funeral was held Monday in Chula Vista. There, Al-Hinn's mother said Yvonne is part of her family now.
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