PHOENIX -- Two Valley women say they are bonded forever after one gave the other a priceless gift: time.

On June 10, the driver of a speeding pickup truck lost control at a sharp curve along a stretch of highway 80 near Arlington.

Marisela Avila, 24, was on her way to work in Phoenix when she saw the accident scene.

"You could see the truck in the middle of the desert," she said.

Avila sped past, as did the cars in front of her.

"None of them stopped," Avila said. "None of them pressed their brakes. Nothing."

Avila stopped and turned back.

"I could hear the truck still on … there was black smoke coming out of the truck and everything," she said. "I didn't know anything yet -- what I was going to find."

Marisela called 911, and the operator answered the moment she found the driver, Sgt. James Richardson.

"I was really scared," she said. "I was hoping he wasn't dead there."

The 39-year-old Richardson -- a decorated soldier -- was alive, but dying. He lived for another 42 days, but he never regained consciousness.

"We will always be thankful to Marisela Avila for her quick action," said Richardson's mother, Cheryle Richardson. "We had time with him -- time we wouldn't have had."

Cheryle Richardson wrote to CBS 5 News, asking to pay it forward to the woman who gave her family the time to say goodbye to her son.

"Had it not been for her, we would've lost our son on that curve," Richardson said.

When Richardson and Avila met again, the soldier's mother handed the other woman $500.

"Thank you so much," Richardson told Avila. "We are so grateful for those days we had with our son. We will forever be grateful to you … We will love you forever."

Avila said that not a day goes by when she doesn't think of James Richardson.

"I pass that road every single day … every day I look at the side of the road," she said. "His breathing is something that I can't forget."

Nevertheless, she said she only did what she'd want someone else to do for her.

"There were two cars in front of me that didn't stop," she said. "I had to stop. There's no way I could ever leave anyone like that."

The Pay It Forward prize money will come in handy, she said. The recently single woman has two boys -- a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old -- and she said without the money, it was going to be a rough Christmas.

Cheryle Richardson's gift will help her give her sons a better holiday, she said.