WASHINGTON — Asia Ford was going to finish this race — even as she was struggling to stand and keep her breath. Her “angel,” as she describes him, came from an unlikely source.
A police officer.
“He came at the moment I really needed him,” Ford told an NBC affiliate in Louisville, Kentucky.
Years ago, Ford wouldn’t have been able to even start a race, much less finish. She was extremely overweight. She spent the last two years losing 217 pounds. She said she did it for her children.
“I just knew all those times we went to the doctor’s office and the doctor told us what could have happened,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let that happen to me.”
She trained for months for a local Road City Run 10K and was in the finishing stretch, when she became so weary she could not go on.
Officer Lt. Gregory Aubrey, who had seen her struggling, leapt into action.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to let her stop. We’re going to do this together,'” Aubrey told the NBC affiliate. “So I got out and I grabbed her hand. I had to meet this inspirational woman.”
He and her son Terrance walked with her through the last mile and crossed the finish line with her.
Did you love these images? Come meet Asia Ford, Lt. Gregory and Photographer Jonathan Roberts 3 pm Monday, Metro Hall pic.twitter.com/EUEFr1RaUw
— Mayor Greg Fischer (@louisvillemayor) March 22, 2015
“In watching her going across that line, raising her hands, I felt it all over. It was great moment,” said Aubrey. Their moment was captured by a photographer and it went viral over the next 24 hours.
“Looking at her how she used to be and looking at her now, it’s an inspiration,” said Terrance, “and it makes me want to push harder with what I want to do in life.”
Asked about his view of the police officer’s assistance, he said simply, “with all the stuff going on right now with police, it’s nice to know there are good people out there,” Terrence said.
“That is what being a police officer is about,” insisted Aubrey. “Service to others, helping.”
And then a message from Ford to Aubrey: “You are my angel, you are the person where, I could have stopped, it could have been the end of my race, but you didn’t allow me.”
wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather
