It all happened in about 10 seconds.
I was sitting outside a car wash, waiting for my sister.
Before I could even think, I ran and grabbed the stroller right before it went into traffic.
I rolled him right back up to her and gave her a big hug.
Within a few days, it had been viewed 58 million times.
TV stations and newspapers wanted to hear my story, so I told them.
My girlfriend had died five years earlier, and it broke me.
All I could do was cry.
Id been clean and sober for years when she died, but I started using drugs again.
I got beat up and left for dead on the railroad tracks in Fontana, California.
Then my sister took me in, and I realized I had to clean up my act.
I stopped the drugs and went looking for a job.
Thats what had taken me to Applebees that day.
And I wanted something different for myself.
All my life, I was always that person doing something stupid or wrong.
Ive been to prison four times.
But suddenly people were saying nice things about me.
They offered me money though I never took a dime.
People demanded that Applebees hire me, which it did.
And I learned that people are good.
They would come into Applebees and say, Is that the guy who saved the baby?
He really works here?
When I went to the DMV, people said, Are you the guy that saved the baby?
When you feel worthless, thats how you expect to be treated.
But now people were treating me like I had value.
And it changed me.
Im open to everything.
My confidence is through the roof.
Its so much easier to speak to people.
I feel Im worthy.
I loved my job, but this pays way better.
My message for others is that its never too late to change.
Until I was past 50, I used to do this and that, but today I work hard.
I know what Im doing, and I know that I make a difference.
Truck driver Ronald Nessman, 54, lives in Victorville, California.
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