Granger Smith and his wife, Amber lost their 3-year-old son, River in a drowning accident at their Texas home, with the couple announcing the devastating news on June 6. The grieving parents took to YouTube on Wednesday night, sharing unimaginable details about the heartbreaking moment surrounding the toddler’s death.
“It was actually a night just like this,” Smith said in a video posted on YouTube. “I was outside playing with London. We were doing gymnastics in the yard, and the boys were playing water gun fight. I remember thinking – I was looking at London, as she was doing gymnastics, and I thought, ‘Soak up this moment.’ I just had this thought, ‘Soak up this moment, because it’s not going to last forever.’
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“Somewhere between 30 seconds and three minutes later – we don’t know – Amber and I are inside our pool gate doing CPR on our son,” recalled the singer. “I think the platform that we mainly stand for is love those close to you. Soak up those moments. Live for today, live in the present, because we’re not guaranteed tomorrow. What happened to us defied all odds, all possibilities, and we believe in our belief that God gave us River for three years, and that was his mission.”
The Smiths also have 7-year-old London and 5-year-old Lincoln, and are helping them cope with their grief while in the midst of their own.
“London asked me how many days River lived,” a tearful Smith recalled. “I said just over 1,000. I thought about that after I said that. I thought, ‘What if we were all given 1,000 days on this earth and you could live those days barefoot, your red hair flying back, on your go kart, on your tractor full speed ahead?’ If you could do that with your family around you with no real cares in the world, that’s a good 1,000 days. That’s a good way to live.”
Smith admitted he was more nervous making the video to share with his fans, but he had an important message he wanted everyone around them to know.
“I think the most important thing that we want to say is, and the reason we are doing this video, is that we are committed to each other,” Smith said, with Amber adding also their family, their kids and their faith.
“We are stronger than ever right now,” he continued. “We’ve gotten so close. We’re going to constantly search for the meaning behind all of this. Not the reason. I think the reason is very different than the meaning. I’m not going to get caught up in the reasons. And I’ll never know. But we’ll find the meaning and the good in this and the way to spread this message and to spread this legacy. And he’ll always be with me, and he’ll always be in our hearts.”
The Smiths are experiencing unimaginable heartache, but they insist they don’t need sympathy.
“Don’t feel sorry for us because we feel very blessed that we had an incredible little boy for three years,” Smith said. “We feel really good about that. And we feel really good about our other kids and their state of mind right now. We are going to live our best life and we’re going to do it with you guys and we’re going to share it with you guys. We’re going to do it with you guys. We’re going to share it with you guys. We want you to be on this journey with us. I’m still going to do music.”
Smith also revealed he is soon going back to work, albeit with a few changes.
“I’m going to go back on tour next week,” Smith said. “I’m going to bring [my family] with me. We’re all going to go. We’re going to alter things a little bit. I’m going to hold off on meet and greets. I don’t think that’s the best place for me to be right now is in meet and greets. A, it’s going to be stranger if we have to talk about River. And B, it’s going to be even stranger if we don’t talk about River. So I think it’s best, for all of us, to hold off on meet and greets.”
The Smiths concluded their message by sharing a video of a montage of events with River. Smith’s next scheduled show is June 21 in Iowa. Find dates at his official website.
Photo Credit: YouTube
