Stephanie Wellman and Norn Eshleman share a hug at Russell Pub. Eshleman donated bone marrow to Wellman after making the pledge in a post-bar-brawl drunken haze. (Tom Van Dusen, QMI Agency)

RUSSELL, Ont. - Russell's Stephanie Wellman will be eternally grateful that a total stranger who had the option of backing out of a life-saving pledge made a long time ago - and in a bit of a haze - never wavered.

The life Saskatchewan's Norm Eshleman saved was Wellman's. He did it by donating bone marrow although - by his own admission - he couldn't remember having agreed to do so, rescuing the artist when she was down and almost out four years ago after being diagnosed with leukemia.

"What do you say to someone who saved your life?," Wellman replied when asked at the Russell House Pub last Saturday how one expresses thanks for such generosity.

For the first time, she got to express her feelings in person when Eshleman, wife Shelba and children Dawson and Faith dropped by Russell for a visit, culminating in a reception at the local watering hole.

No information is provided to recipients about organ and tissue donors and vice versa for a year. But after that, they can correspond and meet if they mutually agree. While Wellman and Eshleman had spoken, they hadn't met before the recent, sometimes emotional, visit to Russell.

Eshleman has no trouble admitting he was well watered that fateful night some 20 years ago in Cold Lake, Alta., where he was taken to hospital following a brawl in a local bar.

"I won the fight," he insisted jovially while sipping a brew. But he didn't remember much else that happened that night, including that he agreed to leave a marrow sample and donate should a match ever come up.

Some 15 years later, it did. Eshleman and Wellman were almost 100 per cent compatible.

The only thing was that, when contacted, the oil industry worker couldn't remember the pledge. He decided that, however, that if he made the commitment, he would follow through with it.

And that's how Wellman came to be carrying Eshleman's DNA, except for her saliva which remained unaffected, opening the door for jokes such as she can now commit the perfect crime, as long as she doesn't spit at the scene.

The pub reception was pulled together by master community event organizer Connie Johnston who thought it would be a great opportunity to draw attention to the importance of signing up as an organ donor"_ whether you remember you did it or not!

One donor registration option occurs when an Ontario health card is acquired or renewed; at that time, consent can be provided to donate organs and tissue.

For Wellman, Norm's stepping up to bat was a matter of life or death. When he answered the call, she was fading fast. A quick marrow transplant was imperative.

Proud to have made such a difference in someone's life, Eshleman dismisses the gesture as "no big deal".

The procedure for which he was anesthetized and which resulted in virtually no side effects involved harvesting through large needles his stem cells and then transfusing into Wellman what she described as three small bags of the gift of life.

The artist has recovered and experiences only occasional mild symptoms of her body's natural tendency to want to reject the foreign marrow.

Following the visit, the Eshleman family which calls Pierceland, Sask., home was off to see Niagara Falls before heading west. Norm made it clear, however, that the big draw east was the chance to meet the woman who shares his DNA.