Just sat down at Waffle House when Tim Baker called. Answered while taking a bite—started choking immediately. Couldn’t breathe at all. Dropped the phone, stood up banging on the counter, grabbing my throat desperately.
My waiter Jay came rushing around and performed the Heimlich maneuver perfectly. The food dislodged instantly. I’m alive because of his quick action.
To my hero Jay at Waffle House—thank you for saving my life with no hesitation.
Tim Baker sat down at Waffle House, ordered food, and answered a phone call while taking a bite. And immediately started choking. Not the kind of choking where you cough a few times and it clears. The kind where your airway is completely blocked. Where you can’t breathe at all. Where panic sets in instantly because you realize you’re in serious danger.
He dropped the phone. Stood up. Started banging on the counter, grabbing his throat—the universal sign for choking. Desperately trying to communicate that he needed help, that he was dying, that someone had to do something.
And Jay, his waiter, came rushing around from behind the counter. No hesitation. No panic. Just action. He performed the Heimlich maneuver perfectly. The food dislodged instantly. Tim could breathe again.
He’s alive because of Jay’s quick action.
This story is a reminder of how quickly things can go wrong, and how much difference one person’s training can make. Jay didn’t have time to think. He didn’t have time to call for help or wait for someone more qualified. He just had to act. And he did.
The Heimlich maneuver is one of those things most people know exists but few have ever actually performed. It’s taught in first aid classes, demonstrated on posters in restaurants, explained in safety videos. But knowing about it and being able to execute it under pressure are two very different things.
Jay executed it perfectly. Not because he was a medical professional. Not because he’d done it a hundred times before. But because in that moment, when someone’s life depended on him, he didn’t freeze. He acted.
Tim Baker is alive today because Jay didn’t hesitate. Because Jay didn’t assume someone else would help. Because Jay saw someone choking and immediately did what needed to be done.
And that’s heroism. Not the loud, dramatic kind that gets turned into movies. But the quiet, immediate kind that happens in Waffle Houses and offices and homes—the kind where someone acts without thinking about whether they’ll succeed, because the alternative is watching someone die.
Jay didn’t ask for recognition. He probably went back to taking orders, refilling coffee, doing his job. But Tim Baker will never forget him. Because Jay is the reason he’s still alive. The reason he got to go home that night. The reason he gets to keep living.
To my hero Jay at Waffle House—thank you for saving my life with no hesitation. Those words say everything. Because in that moment, hesitation would have been fatal. But Jay didn’t hesitate. He just acted. And that made all the difference.