By MALENA OGLES

Staff Writer

Sheets of rain pelted the truck windshield as Lauren Lewis drove south through Palestine on her way to College Station after a weekend visiting family in Tyler.

But with slick roads and a slip of the wheel, the 20-year-old Texas A&M student lost control and her father's 2006 Toyota Tundra, hydroplaned, spun twice, then veered into oncoming traffic.

"The last words she spoke to me was, 'Daddy, I love you. I'll call you when I get to the next place in the road where we always talk,'" her father Michael Lewis said.

When he didn't hear from his daughter, Lewis began to call her cell phone.

It would connect and hang up, then connect and hang up.

"When I finally got through I said 'Lauren,' and they said "No, it's Palestine Regional Medical Center, and your daughter's been involved in a terrible automobile accident and we're transferring her to Tyler,'" he said.

The nurse told Mr. Lewis his daughter, deprived of oxygen, had suffered serious brain trauma.

Devastated, Lewis called his wife Robin to tell her their Lauren was not going to live, but no matter what she was going to be an organ donor.

On March 4, 2008, Lauren Lewis, known by her family and friends as "La La," succumbed to her injuries and died at East Texas Medical Center -- the same day the senior science and math education major was to receive her class ring.

The donor

Family and friends described Lauren, a 2005 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School, as a young woman who lived life with enthusiasm and to the fullest.

She loved Texas A&M University and was active in the Maggies Women's Leadership Organization of Texas A&M University. Lauren was the 2007 Maggie Member of the Year, 2008 Programming Chair for Freshman Leadership Development Retreat, a delegate for Abbott Family Leadership Conference, a tutor and a volunteer for Boys & Girls Club at the Lincoln Center.

"She was incredibly outgoing and constantly encouraging other people," her father said, adding that there was no way a father and daughter could be closer. "We talked four or five times a week even though she was a college student."

Lauren, who was set to graduate this May, dreamed of becoming teacher.

A match

More than 240 miles away in Parker Heights, Crystal Paniagua woke to the sound of a ringing phone.

It was 3 a.m. on March 5, 2008, and the man on the line said, "We found you a match."

After a year on dialysis and having suffered since the age of 16 with failing kidneys, the 20-year-old's prayer had been answered.

"I was excited and a little nervous about the surgery, but I was also wondering whose kidney it was," Ms. Paniagua said. "I knew the donor was about my age and that she was a true Aggie fan, but I didn't know anything else."

About her sophomore year of high school, Ms. Paniagua said, she started feeling tired. Sometime she was so tired, it was difficult to move her head.

Unable to finish high school because of her illness, she received her GED.

After numerous tests and trips to the doctor's office, she was told her kidneys were failing and without a transplant, she had only a few years to live.

The meeting

Sunday afternoon, a little more than a year after Lauren's death, the Lewis family -- along with 30 other families of organ donors -- attended the Southwest Transplant Alliance's "Celebration of Giving and Living" ceremony at the Tyler Woman's Building.

Lewis, who spoke at the ceremony, said that even though his daughter never told him, he knew she wanted to be an organ donor.

"There was no doubt in my mind" she would want to donate, Lewis said. "She would do whatever it takes to make another person's life better, fuller, richer."

At Sunday's celebration, the Lewis family got the chance to meet Lauren's kidney recipient, Ms. Paniagua, for the first time.

April is National Organ Donor Awareness Month, and the event was organized to bring attention to the importance of organ donation.

"Grief is an incredibly trick business. It is exhausting it is very difficult. Today is bittersweet for us because you are face to face with your loss and at the same time celebrating the life of others," he said.

The Lewis family said knowing some part of their daughter lives on in the lives of others is a comfort.

Lauren's liver, kidneys and corneas and heart were donated.

The man who received Lauren's liver was about 12 hours from death. Lewis said he is a father and grandfather.

"Even though that doesn't bring my daughter back, I am thankful that he gets to enjoy life," Lewis said.

Lewis said he hopes that Ms. Paniagua will allow his family to be involved in her life.

"There are several things that I will never be able to experience with Lauren. As a father, I was looking forward to the day of her marriage and children. Knowing there is another person out there who gets to go on with their life and experience those things is helpful to me," he said.

With the illness behind her, Ms. Paniagua said she one day hopes to attend college and become a social worker.

"I am thankful that they would be so nice, and give me chance to live," Ms. Paniagua said.

For more information about organ donation, visit www.donatelifetexas.org.