Walking down memory lane. Amber Smith opened up about the month before her 3-year-old son River’s June 2019 death.
“One year ago,” the actress, 38, captioned a throwback family photo via Instagram of herself, her husband, Granger Smith, and their kids — London, 8, Lincoln, 6, and River. “My caption was ‘enjoying daddy being home and Texas rain.’ Life was good. No one has a perfect life, but it was pretty dang good. Happy kids, happy marriage, happy hearts.”
She went on to write, “We couldn’t have known the storm we would be facing in less than 30 days. Life is unpredictable. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Life can change in an instant. Love your family. Love your friends. Love your God. John 16:33.”
One month after the picture was taken, River drowned at the family’s Tennessee home. The country singer, 40, announced their youngest son’s death via Facebook at the time.
“Riv was special,” the Texas native wrote. “Everyone that met him knew that immediately. The joy he brought to our lives cannot be expressed and his light will be forever in our hearts. If there are words to say more, I cannot find them in this moment. Love the ones close to you. There has never been a more difficult moment for us than this.”
Amber shared her last moments with her toddler in July 2019. “When 3 different neuro specialists told us that River had 0% chance of brain recovery (yes 0, not 10 or 1%, 0) after shock and reality set in, I thought, how can we bury our sweet baby and not try to help others? His body is perfect, his organs are perfect, we had to do something,” she captioned an emotional Instagram post at the time. “There are so many people waiting for an organ to save their lives.”
She went on to write, “I spent the night laying in bed with him, crying and talking to him while they kept running tests and taking blood,” Amber recalled. “The next morning family and staff lined the hall for the ‘walk of honor’. We told them River liked to go fast, so to honor him, they pushed him down that hall faster than they had ever pushed anyone. Granger and I held each other and cried.”
Amber has continued to document her family’s journey to healing via social media, from London and Lincoln’s first days of school to their snowy Idaho vacation.
