"I told her I'll go buy her lunch, and 'we'll talk things out and get her in a better place,'" John explained.That's when her true intentions became clear. RELATED: Teacher Writes Over 100 Letters After Student’s Attempted Suicide The woman turned John's offer down. She told him she was better off on the other side of the bridge, encouraging him to forget about her. But John persisted.
"I said, 'No, I want to help you, let's just talk this out,'" he said.Sensing the woman's desperation, John reached out, hooking his arms into hers. As he held her tight, refusing to let her jump, the heroic umpire mouthed to another pedestrian to call 911 for help. As John held tight, the suicidal woman begged him to let her go, saying he'd forget about her by the next day.
"I’ll never forget you," he assured her. "You can have my promise on that."As they waited for help to arrive, the woman tried several times to break free. She let both of her legs slip free from the ledge. It was no easy feat, but God gave John the strength to hold on.
"I just thought I'm going to hang on and hang on and I'm not going to let go ..." he recalled. "Obviously your adrenaline is going, and I think you get that inner strength that you never thought you had, especially when you have someone else's life in your hands."
"You try to regain composure and obviously you're thinking of everything that just happened and obviously there's other ways that situation could've played out,'' he said.[rsnippet id="2"] Needless to say, once the story of how the umpire saved the suicidal woman spread, John was hailed as a hero. But the humble man shrugs off all of the praise.
"This isn't a story about me," he said. "Honestly, this is a story about her getting better."Despite the woman's insistence that John would soon forget her, he's done no such thing. John says he hopes to track her down one day and give her a hug.
"I think something like this just shows that there's more meaningful things in life, and how precious life is,'' he said. "I hope she's doing all right, and I hope to see her again."