Country music singer Granger Smith, a father of 4 boys, is opening up about his grief and how he leaned on his faith after losing his three-year-old son, River, in a drowning accident in 2019.
Smith recalled the devastating event saying, “My wife and I lost our little boy. River was 3 years old, and we went down a journey that I thought I could fix on my own with self-help and self-improvement and exercise and positivity and visualization, meditation, and devotionals. I thought I could just mend it, fix it and move on, and I couldn’t.”
Explaining his son’s loss, he said, “He drowned at our home, in our home pool, and I was there. I was 15 feet away from this. I was doing gymnastics with my daughter, and River was playing water gun fight with our son, Lincoln. And somehow he got into our gated locked pool. Within seconds, right behind me while I was doing gymnastics with our daughter, he was in the pool and had inhaled water. Became unconscious.”
Smith said when he “pulled him out, I didn’t know CPR, besides what I had seen in the movies, and we lived out in the country.”
Smith continued saying, “So, it took paramedics 10 minutes to get there. That’s too long to go without oxygen to his little brain, and it ended up being irreversible. The damage to his brain ended up killing him the next day. The months and years following were rock bottom for me.”
“We [were] trying to find the answer to why these dark days were upon us and what it all meant. Why would God allow this?” he questioned God.
“Once we know that, then we could stop saying ‘Why, God, why did you do this to me?’ ‘Why would a good God allow this to happen?’ Instead, we could then say, ‘What God? What are you trying to show me in this? What do I need to learn from this? To be closer to you. To understand you better. To help serve others around me. What do I need to know?’” Smith said.
In 2021, Smith and his wife welcomed a son named Maverick and have 3 other children.
Speaking of their youngest son, Smith said, “Not that he could ever replace River, that’s not the point. He never would have, but it is very interesting that he’s a life that existed because another doesn’t. That stuff that just tangles up my brain if I even try to think about it.”
Encouraging other parents to lean on God if they are going through something similar, Smith stated that “nothing is an accident.”
Speaking of his faith, Smith said, “Well, it saved my life, essentially, from the darkest of grief.”
Fox News spoke with Smith discussing his acting debut in the upcoming film titled, “Moonrise,” in which he plays a widowed, country singer, dealing with the loss of his wife.
Country music star Granger Smith and his wife Amber are on a mission to raise awareness about drowning prevention and water safety three years after their son River died following an accident in their backyard swimming pool. https://t.co/P7d4S6xVqH
— ABC News (@ABC) July 23, 2022
