Country music singer Granger Smith and his wife, Amber, are hoping something good can come from their tragedy.
The couple donated over $200,000 to Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, in their son River’s memory.
Granger Smith and wife Amber donate over $200K in honor of late son https://t.co/JCkMoOJLD4 pic.twitter.com/k1avsMy6g7
— Page Six (@PageSix) June 27, 2019
River accidentally drowned at the family’s home in Georgetown on June 6. After attempting to do CPR, the couple rushed River to Dell Children’s Medical Center where he received care from the staff but would die two days later.
“This is just the beginning,” Granger said while presenting a check for $218,791 to the hospital. “Let this be a small token of the gratitude that we’ve got for you guys.”
The couple made tribute t-shirts in honor of their son and donated all the proceeds to the hospital.
“I’ll never ever forget it,” said Granger. “The first thing we wanted to do was start giving back to Dell Children’s.”
“I pray that nobody else ever has to go through what we’ve gone through, but if they do, I hope they come here because y’all were incredible,” added Amber.
Granger Smith and his family are holding their heads high after the tragic death of their 3-year-old son River. https://t.co/kX41ZCBZen pic.twitter.com/JdPo2QLW5z
— E! News (@enews) June 20, 2019
The couple has said that they plan to produce another t-shirt later this year and will again donate all of the proceeds to the children’s hospital.
“We watched you through our eyes, through our grieving eyes, in the worst of times, we watched you speak to our little boy like he heard you and we were hearing it,” Granger said. “You were speaking to us and it mattered.”
“We don’t understand why this happened and we’ll never understand, but I promise that we’re going to figure out the good. We’re going to bring good from it,” said Amber.
We’ve been on quite the journey these past few weeks.
Amber and I wanted to send y’all a message with this video: https://t.co/B1DJGrZuev. Thank you for all the love, prayers and support. We feel it! pic.twitter.com/0LepRwFZ7H— Granger Smith (@GrangerSmith) June 20, 2019
Last week, the Smiths shared an emotional video as they opened up about the drowning death of their 3-year-old son.
They posted an almost 28-minute video on June 19 on YouTube titled “Finding Light In Our Darkest Time.”
The couple said they wanted to let everyone know how they were doing and thanked fans as well as the first responders and those at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, who tried to save River.
Granger Smith explained he had been outside doing gymnastics with daughter London, 7, as River and their other son, Lincoln Monarch, 5, were engaged in a water gun fight.
Soon the parents were inside their pool gate attempting to do CPR on their youngest, who could not be revived. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died two days later, they said.
The Smiths, who spoke at their son’s funeral, said they are trying to focus on the blessing of having had River for the three years they did.
“I don’t think God takes anyone too soon,” the singer said. “I believe he was put on this Earth for that exact amount of time.”
Fighting back tears, he noted that River lived “just over a thousand days.”
“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 care in the world, that’s a good way to live,” Granger Smith said.
He said he plans to return on tour as he finds healing in his music.
The couple said they are “stronger than ever” and have grown closer since their son’s death.
They implored others not to feel sorry for them.
“We feel very blessed,” Smith said. “We had an incredible boy for three years, and we feel good about that.”
The message included a montage of photos and video of River whose memory his parents hope will make others smile.
“Live like Riv,” they said.
