Jocelynn James of Russellville, Alabama, is the last person Terrell Potter ever expected to do him a favor. He did put her in jail, after all.
But the way Jocelynn sees it, the day the former police officer cuffed her is the day he saved her life. Now, almost a decade later, she returned the favor with a life-changing gift of her own.
When Jocelynn first met Potter, an officer with the Phil Campbell Police Department, she was addicted to opioids and on Alabama’s “Most Wanted” list. She had also been in and out of jail more than a dozen times.
“I was just living a really bad life, doing a lot of really bad things that I shouldn’t have had no business doing, and I was just a really lost person,” she said.
Potter arrested her a couple of times, after which she served six months in a halfway house in 2013. That’s when she finally found the resolve to stay sober for good.
Eight years later, Jocelynn is the mom she’s always wanted to be! Not to mention, she runs the nonprofit The Place of Grace, which offers a live-in program to help women recover from addiction.
That’s why it felt like a sign when Jocelynn was scrolling through Facebook one day and discovered that Potter was suffering from kidney failure. With one of his organs functioning at just 5 percent, he needed a transplant, and doctors told him he would likely be waiting up to eight years.
“The Holy Spirit told me, ‘You’ve got that man’s kidney,'” Jocelynn said. “I knew right then I had his kidney.”
Even more amazing was the fact that after she underwent testing, doctors at Vanderbilt University Hospital told her they had “never had a better match for a kidney transplant.”
On July 21, she happily gave Potter the gift of life, and the transplant was a success!
His family still can’t wrap their minds around Jocelynn’s selfless choice, and neither can he, especially considering their past. Of course, these days, he sees her not as a criminal but as a daughter!
“It’s made a great relationship and a bond between us that can go forever. There’s no doubt about that,” Potter said. “Her giving me a kidney, it extended my life.”
If you ask Jocelynn, it was all the work of a higher power.
“For God to use me as a vessel to extend Mr. Potter’s life is my greatest accomplishment,” she said. “I should be dead. Instead, God helped me save a life. I am overwhelmed.”
Talk about meant to be! It’s incredible that these two came into each other’s world right when they needed it most. Enjoy your new lease on life, both of you!
Learn more about their remarkable connection in the video below, and share this story to inspire others.
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