It’s been just over a year since Granger Smith lost his 3 year old son, River, to a drowning accident. June 4, 2019, Smith was playing in the yard of their home outside Georgetown, Texas, with River, his brother Lincoln, now 6, and sister London, now 8, while his wife Amber took a shower inside. As Granger’s attention was turned to his older kids, he didn’t notice that River somehow broke through the pool fence gate’s child-proof lock and headed into the water, just 20 feet away from him. Sadly, River lost his life two days after being placed on life support.
The Smiths have a lifelong journey ahead of them to find purpose in their son’s death. A gift of continued life to two donor recipients was the first step. Just three weeks later, they took another step, donating $218,000 to the children’s hospital in River’s honor.
As Granger said in a recent article with People Magazine, “he learned other cruel lessons too late: that children can drown in less than 30 seconds and that other safety precautions — a second lock on the pool gate, an alarm to signal an unsupervised entry into the water — might have saved River’s life.”
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