Country Singer Granger Smith Recalls Last Moments With Son Before Fatal Drowning
Granger Smith is speaking out for the first time since announcing his three-year-old son, River Kelly, died following an accidental drowning.
The country star and his wife, Amber, posted a 27-minute video on Wednesday giving fans an update on their life since the fatal incident earlier this month. In the heartbreaking clip, they share footage of homemade videos of River.
With tears in their eyes, they recall the last moments they spent with their son.
Granger reveals he was outside playing in the yard with the kids. River and their oldest son, Lincoln, were playing with water guns and the country singer was watching his 7-year-old daughter, London, do gymnastics.
He remembers looking at this three children and thinking, “Soak up this moment because it’s not going to last.”
Somewhere between “30 seconds to 3 minutes,” Granger says he and Amber were “inside of our pool gate doing CPR on our son.”
"What happened to us that night defied all odds, all possibilities," he added. "We believe that God gave us River for three years and that was his mission."
Granger also reveals the gut-wrenching question his daughter asked after River's death.
"London asked me how many days River lived and I said, 'just over a thousand,'" he says, which got him thinking what if everyone was only given a thousand days to live?
“If you could live those days barefoot, red hair flying back 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 way to live,” Granger says with tears in his eyes.
"That's a good example of how we're going to move forward and live every single day," he adds.
The country star says he's committed to growing from this tragedy with his wife and family.
"The most important thing we want to say, which is why we're doing this video is we are committed to each other. We're committed to our family, our kids and our faith. We are stronger than ever. We’ve gotten so close,” Granger states.
"We are going to constantly search for the meaning behind all this, not the reason. I think the reason is very different than the meaning," he adds. "We're 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."
He closes his message saying, River "will always be with me and he'll always be in our hearts."
Adding, “Don’t feel sorry for us. We feel very blessed. We had an incredible boy for three years and we feel good about that.”
Granger also says he's going back on tour next week and bringing his family, but tells fans he's holding off on meet and greets "until he gets his head straight."
As The Blast reported, River passed away after he was brought to the hospital following an accidental drowning early this month.
