CAMBRIDGE, Ontario (CTV Network/CNN) – A Canadian couple’s wedding photo shoot turned into a rescue mission when the groom jumped into a pond to save a little boy from drowning.
Clayton and Brittany Cook had just tied the knot Friday and were posing for their wedding pictures on a nearby park bridge when the groom noticed a child in distress in the water below.
“His face was underwater, and he was fighting. He was really fighting,” Clayton Cook said.
Before Brittany Cook realized what was happening, her husband had run down to the pond and jumped in to save the little boy.
“Luckily, he was only a little guy…and I honestly just sort of hopped him up,” Clayton Cook said.
The boy appeared to be OK, though he didn’t say a word after he was pulled out of the water, according to the couple. Eventually, he was led away by an older sibling.
Two children nearby told the Cooks they pushed the boy into the pond while they were playing.
Wedding photographer Darren Hatt captured the whole ordeal, posting two photos to his Facebook page. They show a well-dressed Clayton Cook in nearly waist-high water pulling the drenched boy onto dry land.
“It was a commendable thing that he did, and he sprung into action incredibly quick. Almost as soon as I realized what was going on, he had already saved the day,” Hatt said.
Brittany Cook says she’s not surprised by her husband’s heroics.
“That's Clay. That's Clay to me,” she said. “It doesn’t even surprise me that that happened. It's something he would just instinctively do."
The couple says they’re grateful they’re not telling a different story.
“How different would everyone’s day have been if we weren’t in the right place at the right time?” Brittany Cook said. “It was like fate almost. We were meant to be there.”
Copyright 2017 CTV Network, Hatt Photography via CNN. All rights reserved.
