Granger Smith reflects on the death of his three-year-old son River a year after his tragic drowning

Country star Granger Smith, 40, and his wife Amber, 30 reflected on the death of their three-year-old son a year after his tragic drowning in a new interview with People Magazine on Wednesday.

On June 4, 2019, River Smith, drowned in family pool at home in Georgetown, Texas and couldn’t be saved by doctors. He died two days later.

The couple have been outspoken about their grief over the loss of the toddler and, in the interview, Amber admits that she doesn’t know if they ‘truly will be able to forgive’ themselves.

In the year since the Smith’s lost River, Granger has gone through a rebirth of sorts, explaining that he’s ‘truly shed layers’ and the person he was then died along with his son. 

‘I feel like I’ve died,’ Granger said. ‘It’s not a bad thing that that “me” died. In fact, I think it’s all good. It’s only good.’ 

‘I feel wiser. I feel more in tune spiritually. I feel more aware of our present moment and the value in the present moment, the value in the current breath that we have.’

Granger and his wife Amber have leaned into their spirituality and faith to get them and their two other children through the darkest year of their lives.  

‘My brain is not capable of calculating that magnitude of a loss, and then I have to realize that I don’t have to,’ the country crooner said. 

Adding: ‘I can lean on a higher power for that and know that my little boy is in a better place.’  

Last year, Granger was outside with his three children while Amber was taking a shower. 

He had turned his attention to their daughter London, 8, while she did gymnastics and in that brief moment, River had fallen into the pool.  

Granger and his wife performed CPR on their son while paramedics were on the way, he was rushed to a hospital, but doctors were not able to save him. 

‘I know that there’s going to be a time when I’m going to forgive myself, but I’m not there yet,’ Grander revealed.

‘I don’t know if we ever truly will be able to forgive ourselves,’ Amber added. ‘I pray that we can. I hope we can.’ 

Two days after the drowning, the couple made the impossible decision to take River off life support and he passed away. River’s organs were donated.

‘It’s not like the movies,’ Granger told People. ‘To comprehend that you could lose someone to drowning 20 feet from you doesn’t make any sense unless you know how that process works and that it’s so silent.’

‘There isn’t splashing or gurgling or kicking.’ he recounted. ‘There wasn’t even a splash going in.’

After River passed, the couple made it their mission to raise awareness about the dangers of drownings. 

They also donated $218,791 to the Dell Children’s Medical Center, in Austin, Texas less than a month after the facility tried in vain to save River.

Granger got back on stage not long after the tragedy and admitted that the whole thing ‘was terrible’ and he felt like the audience was ‘staring at me like, there’s the failed father up there.’ 

He channeled his pain into his new music but won’t be singing about his son specifically in his upcoming September album.  

‘There is a lot of feeling from him in this album,’ the country star said. ‘I could be on the stage now and there could be a lot of people watching me and they don’t know, but I’ve got my eyes closed and it’s just me and Riv.’

Granger is about to go back on tour, despite heightening concerns over the coronavirus, and is scheduled to do a 90 minute set on July 4th in Round Rock, Texas.

Texas is one of the states currently seeing an alarming rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. 

According to NPR, the Lone Star State’s number of new cases per day jumped over 160% as compared to just two weeks ago.  

This week fellow country music star Chase Rice was harangued on social media for performing in front of a crowd of 4,000 people many of whom weren’t wearing masks and none of whom appeared to be social distancing.