Mike Wise, a sports columnist and feature writer for The Washington Post, finally received the opportunity to repay a jogger who saved his life six years ago.
When Wise was jogging with his lab, Looly, he got stuck in the an iced-over canal while hurling his dog out of the iced water. Wise remembers not being able to move and feeling as if his body was shutting down, as he recounts in a Washington Post column. Jason Coates, then a law student, heard Wise's cries for help and came to pull him out of the water.
If it weren't for Coates' help, Wise acknowledges that he may have never met his wife or had his 4-year-old child. The couple is expecting another baby soon.
Wise is telling his story, which often brings him to tears, a few months after he got the opportunity to pay Coates back by being the minister at his wedding.
"When Jason and Alex first asked me to perform their wedding, my initial thought was, my wife is not going to believe I get to be a minister for a day," Wise recalls saying at the wedding. "My second thought was how honored I was to be asked. The reason is simple: Without Jason, I am not here today. Before I tell you the story of how they came into each other's lives, let me tell you the story of how Jason came into mine..."
To read Wise's first-hand account of the story click here.
