GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Last fall, Cindie Powell had the life she wanted. She was living in Goodyear and had three kids with her husband, Daniel.

“(Daniel) was very funny and very loving. Hard worker. Great dad. Just a wonderful man. We got married young, and it had just been a great life,” Powell said.

That great life was shattered, though, on Sept. 24, 2008.

Daniel was driving his cement truck that morning in the far west Valley. A tractor-trailer came up behind his truck but was unable to stop. He crashed into Daniel’s cement truck, and he impact from the tractor-trailer knocked Daniel’s truck off the road and caused it to flip.

Daniel was killed.

“At 33 years old, you’re not expected to bury your spouse,” said Powell, who now raises her three kids on her own. “Unless you’ve been through something like this, you don’t understand.”

Marco Garnica does understand.

One month ago, he and his wife, Guadalupe, were driving in their minivan. Their three children were in the back seats.

According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the driver of a pickup trick veered into the Garnicas’ lane and struck the van.

After the impact, Garnica looked at his wife. She was motionless.

“She wouldn’t respond,” Garnica aid. “I knew it was serious, and I felt that she was probably already gone.”

The woman Marco called "Lupe" was dead. She had been a teacher at Copper Trails Elementary School and the mother of Garnica’s three kids.

After a month without his wife, Garnica said he is often asked how he’s doing. “I tell them I’m OK, but deep inside, I’m still heartbroken,” he said.

Powell and Garnica live in the same neighborhood in Goodyear but had never met, yet Powell said she felt a bond with Garnica because they had both been through the same experience.

“Not even knowing him, I really do,” Powell said. “I mean, it’s something you can’t explain unless you’ve been through it.”

That’s why Powell asked to pay it forward to Garnica. She said the people in her community picked her up off the floor when she was first dealing with her tragic loss, and she wanted Garnica and his family to feel the same thing.

“Just to know their neighbors and friends – ones they don’t even know – are here for them,” Powell wrote in her submission.

On Wednesday, Powell met Garnica for the first time, explained what was happening and gave him $500 as part of the Pay It Forward segment. After she read Garnica her letter, they hugged and cried.

Garnica later said he was extremely moved by what Powell did for him.

“It’s hard, but I think she knows exactly the way I feel,” Garnica said. “It’s good to know there’s someone out there who knows exactly how I feel.”