Oct 6, 2011

With Clair: 2 yr old drowned in canal

When Clair worked for the State of Utah as a Highway Patrolman I enjoyed going with him as often as occasion would permit. That didn’t happen much since our visits to Duchesne were often very few a year when the children were young.

I remember one occasion though when I went with him on a search and rescue as it were for the Highway patrol. He had been called and told a young two year old was missing in Fruitland. It was Dan Young’s grandson. We left Duchesne and traveled to Fruitland as Clair told me that these kind of calls were often not the best to have to go on since they often ended with a great tragedy to the families involved. We got to the home of Dean some time after other members of the Sheriff’s dept and other law enforcement agencies had started looking.  We looked at Dean’s place and saw that the canal in front of his yard just a few feet from the home was full of water. It was irrigation season and he had the water that week. We looked around the canal for signs but didn’t see anything and decided to go out to where the rest of the search team had gone so far. We followed the canal until it emptied into a ditch that was going onto one of the fields. We had no sooner arrived than a member of the team reported that he had found the child in one of the head gates that let water out onto the field. He had drowned and apparently been gone for some time as they were not able to revive him.

They carried him back to the home and there allowed the mother to take the child in her arms and look at him for the last time on earth. She would not let go of him and was taken to Roosevelt to the hospital with him in her arms. Clair explained to me on the way home that it is a mistake to give the child to the mother since the grief is so great that they can’t part with them but that at some point of time it has to be done and is usually better before they get to hold the child after it has died. I was thankful that I had never had to bear that kind of grief even though my testimony of life after death is very strong and I know that the child is forever going to be with Heavenly Father in His Kingdom because he passed form this life before the age of accountability.

I have often thought of the mother though and realized that she will blame herself for many years for having let the child out of her sight for those few seconds that it took for his curiosity to put him in danger of the canal. I have also thought each time though about the fact that we can never always prevent an accident and have to have the faith that no matter the outcome our Heavenly Father is able to know what is happening and will take care of the child whether it be in life or in death for He is the child’s Father as well and has a greater love for him than even we can understand at this time.