The holidays may be over, but the spirit of giving back never goes away. A Starbucks barista in Washington state named Nicole McNeil went above and beyond her job description in January 2017 when she took note of a regular customer, a man named Vince Villano, who wasn’t acting like himself.
After noticing that Villano, 41, seemed upset, KIRO-TV reports McNeil pulled him aside to talk and the Army veteran revealed he was suffering from polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder that’s only truly cured by a kidney transplant. “I’ve never really wanted to be the guy that’s like, ‘Hey, I need a kidney,’” Villano explained in a Instagram video shared by Starbucks on Thursday, December 28.
However, Villano needed help. When he and McNeil first spoke, his kidneys were barely functioning, and he was just days away from being placed on dialysis.
After learning of Villano’s health battle, McNeil went home and told her husband, Justin, 36, the story. “The very first thing Justin said was, ‘I have a kidney,’” McNeil recalled, adding that her husband, who is also a veteran, didn’t need to know anything else about Villano prior to offering up one of his own organs.
“God puts a lot of people in different places and everyone has the capacity to give something,” Justin told KIRO after learning he was a match. In the Starbucks clip McNeil said of her husband’s choice, “I really think it might have gone back to his military experience.”
Added Villano: “There’s just that baseline of trust.”
In sharing the trio’s heartwarming story on social media, Starbucks noted that “what began as a selfless act from one veteran to another led to an unbreakable bond between their two families.”
The procedure took place on Wednesday, December 26, and has thus far proven to be a life-saving act for Villano, who is beyond grateful for his new friend’s sacrifice. “In general, having them as friends, family, I wouldn’t want it to not be this way,” he explained to KIRO. “I can’t imagine not having them in my life.”
As Justin told Starbucks: “It’s easier to give. And the bigger the gift, sometimes the easier it is to give.”
