Granger Smith and Wife Amber Explain Decision to Move After Loss of 3-Year-Old Son, River

Granger Smith and his wife, Amber, have moved out of their family home, only a few months after the tragic loss of their 3-year-old son, River, who drowned in the family swimming pool. In a video posted on their YouTube channel, The Smiths, the couple explained how they came to the heart-wrenching decision to leave the only home River knew and move to a new place.

“I absolutely loved our house, where we lived,” Smith said in the video. “Amber and I both thought that it was our house that we would stay in for a long, long time. But after the accident with River, it changed the way we felt there. There was a lot of – thousands of really good memories and one really bad one. We’d go back and forth because River loved those woods and those fields, and that was his land. But my number one priority is the well-being of the other two kids, and I don’t think I was totally myself at the old house. Amber probably wasn’t either.

“We’re a family of faith, so we prayed about it, and I felt very compelled to make this move,” he continued. “We were able to sell quickly. Great family coming in; I feel so good about this family. I feel like this is God’s plan, and it’s hard to say that, because I can’t understand this plan, but it does feel like there are pieces of it that make a lot of sense, and this family is one of them. We’re handing over the keys to them, and hopefully we’ll be able to go back and build a bonfire.”

The Smiths made the move largely because of their daughter and son, Lincoln and Landon.

“We’re still trying to make the kids feel like they’re most the important thing in the world, which they are to us,” Smith said. “This move feels like the right thing to do.”

Amber agreed with her husband that moving was the best decision, but it was still painful to actually pack up their former home, which she shared while sitting in the old playroom.

“I think I’ve been in just like survival mode lately, where I’ve just been doing it and going and going and going and it hasn’t really hit me,” Amber admitted. “But today it’s hitting me that we’re leaving this house where we have so many memories of River and our family. This is really hard.”

The new video ends with several minutes of footage of their three children, including River, playing together over the last couple years. Smith is back on the road for the next few months. Find dates at GrangerSmith.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images / Jason Kempin