N.C. Woman's Home Gives New Life to Katrina Victim

Dec. 24, 2008 — -- In September 2005 Janice Meredith found herself homeless, displaced and caring for her infant son after Hurricane Katrina forced her out of her home in New Orleans.

"The basic things that are taken for granted every day we actually lost. We lost that," Meredith said.

Her salon business also was destroyed during the storm.

"The business was totally gone. We were totally stressed, totally stressed," she said.

Meredith credits Donna Dailey with helping her get her life back in order, and on "Good Morning America" Wednesday, Meredith was able to surprise and thank Donna Dailey when the two came face-to-face for the first time.

A surprised and joyous Dailey was pleased to meet the Merediths in person for the first time and they all shared a hug.

Click here to tell "Good Morning America" whom you'd like to thank.

Following the flooding and decimation of her home and business, Meredith made her way to Alabama and then Georgia, where she and a slew of relatives were forced to share a hotel room. Facing personal disaster with her financial funds dwindling, she couldn't have foreseen just how much her life would change thanks to a woman who lived 400 miles away in North Carolina.

Dailey, who is an entrepreneur that owns several real estate and consulting businesses, was moved by the plight of the hurricane victims and decided she had to act. She called her friend and realtor Judy Biddy to discuss a home she had on the market near Atlanta.

"She said, 'I think we need to take my house off the market and get a family from New Orleans in there,'" Biddy said.

Though it was on the verge of selling, Dailey pulled it off the market and decided to use it to house a family affected by the hurricane. She placed an ad on Craigslist, and Meredith saw the ad online and responded to it.

"You could hear the excitement in her voice," Brenda Cook said of Dailey, who is her aunt. "She was so excited, she couldn't wait for them to get there."