Two Calgary sisters whose father died almost five years ago were introduced to the woman who received his heart in Toronto on Friday.

Robert Cox, 57, died after a fall down the stairs at his Nova Scotia home in 2012 and his daughters say they will always remember his laugh and stories.

“My dad was a funny man who loved deeply. He just really loved everyone in his life. His laughter, his smile, his generosity, his hugs,” said Carolyn Cox-Disney.

“Everybody said he had a heart of gold,” said Belynda Garcia. “He would give you the shirt off of his back.”

The sisters were faced with a tough decision when they were approached to donate their dad’s organs and they were a bit surprised that they were viable.

“Then we got the calls from the organ donation coordinator to see if we would consider doing this and we’re like, no, he’s older, this, that, whatever and it turned out that everything that he was able to donate was viable for donation,” said Cox-Disney.

“We were really surprised, we just thought, okay we’ll say yes because why not right? He could save somebody’s life but I think we both kind of had a conversation where we’re like, what are the chances? Like you don’t actually think that it’s going to happen and he wasn’t 20 years old, he was 57 so the fact that he was able to donate those organs,” said Garcia.

They decided to make his organs available for donation and say it was something their dad would have wanted.

“It was a hard decision but then again not really, you know what I mean, like, you think that I’d be hard but it was hard because the situation was so sudden and it’s unexpected and it was just a really, really hard time but then knowing that you can do that also sheds a little bit of light and a little bit of feel goods, you know, you just feel good about it,” said Garcia.

“Our whole family was behind it. His sister, his twin sister, everyone in our family was behind it. It wasn’t that we were, we had a lot of support making the decision,” said Cox-Disney.

Julie Lyons was in the same hospital as Cox, suffering from congenital heart disease and was in need of a transplant.

“We heard from the transplant person in Halifax, they told us that all of his organs were donated and we didn’t know at the time though that Julie was actually in the same hospital as our dad so they were actually in the same hospital and she was number one on the list when we lost our dad,” said Cox-Disney.

“I think it's absolutely incredible. I think the chances of that happening, that they were actually a match, that they were in the same hospital at the same time, that our dad, we were saying goodbye to our dad and Julie was probably getting ready to receive her new heart,” said Garcia.

Lyons was given Robert Cox’s heart and less than a year after he died she wrote a letter to the family.

An aunt saw an article in a local paper, noticed similarities to the letter and connected the dots.

“We got a letter from her telling us about her and that she was doing well,” said Cox-Disney, “And giving us a big hug, was her last line and it was like okay, wow.”

“Of course, we didn’t know who she was and she didn’t know who we were either so it was pretty neat just knowing that and we were like, oh wow,” said Garcia.

After corresponding with each other for a few years, the three women decided to meet and they all flew to Toronto on Friday.

Lyons gave the sisters a chance to listen to their father’s heart beating in her chest and said he saved her life.

“Thank you for giving me my life back,” said Lyons.

“He sounds pretty good,” said Garcia.

“I just wonder what he’s saying,” said Cox-Disney.

“He’s saying, it’s so good to see you today,” said Lyons.

The sisters say it’s a comfort to know that someone was able to benefit from their tragedy.

“It’s a great comfort knowing there is a piece of your loved one still alive,” said Cox-Disney. “Everyone up in heaven is laughing,”

“He is up there with his brothers and his dad and he’s just up there with family and they are probably watching everything go on and they’re just like ‘Oh my God, high five, yeah this is awesome.’ I think it’s just really cool and I think he’d be so proud knowing that his heart saved somebody’s life. It really did, she was very sick," said Garcia.

Lyons calls her heart ‘Bob’ in memory of Cox and has become an organ donation advocate.

(With files from Brad McLeod)