HOUSTON — The Aldine High School football player who is credited with saving a mom and her kid from Imelda’s floodwaters last week has been invited to a Texans’ game by none other than Deshaun Watson himself!
The quarterback called Jayden Payne “a real-life hero” and invited him to this Sunday’s game against the Panthers.
Vinitta Williams got trapped in the flooding rain Thursday while trying to get her 2-year-old daughter, Ava, home from daycare.
Williams was driving near Aldine High with Ava secured in a car seat in the back when her car was swept away into a flooded drainage ditch. Luckily, Jayden and his mother Cynthia Payne were nearby and saw the whole thing happen.
“The whole street was just submerged with water,” Jayden said. “I hear my mom screaming, ‘No, no! Someone stop her! Get out of the car! Get out of the car!’ I just started seeing it sink. I was like, oh my God.”
Williams said her car started sinking and water started getting inside her vehicle. She managed to get the driver’s side door open and swam out of the SUV holding Ava above her head, but the swift current was pulling them both under.
Luckily, Jayden was already running to help.
“I threw my jacket off and I threw my shirt off...and I dove in,” he said.
Jayden said throughout the rescue, he never thought about the risk he was taking and was more concerned with the life of the little girl and her mother.
“We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Williams said. “If he would’ve jumped in that water and pulled us out, we would not be here.”
Jayden and Williams later realized they live in the same apartment complex. Now these two families, who didn’t even know they were neighbors, say they know they’ll forever be friends.
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