The country music singer revealed a new piece of artwork honoring his late son.
Granger Smith has found a special way to remember his 3-year-old son, River, who died in a tragic drowning accident.
Over the weekend, the 39-year-old country music star revealed that he had his son’s name tattooed across his right forearm in black cursive while performing at the Country LakeShake music festival in Chicago, Illinois.
The new ink was also on display on Tuesday, when he and his wife, Amber Bartlett, presented an over-sized check totaling $218,791 to Dell’s Children’s Medical Center, the facility where River was treated, according to CBS Austin.
On June 6, the couple revealed that their son had accidentally drowned at their home. Soon after, fans and the country music community rallied around the couple and their family.
And last week, the singer and his wife released a new video on their YouTube channel, where they thanked fans for their support and reflected on the loss of their son.
"We are going to search for every bit of good that we can find in this situation, you know, the worst situation we've ever been through. Hopefully ever," Smith said in the clip. "We're going to constantly search for ways that good will come out of this. That's my commitment to River's legacy."
He also stated: "It was actually a night just like this and I was outside playing with London. We were doing gymnastics in the yard and the boys were playing a water gun fight. I remember thinking, I was looking at London, as she was doing gymnastics and I thought... 'Soak up this moment because it's not going to last forever.' Somewhere between 30 seconds and three minutes [later] Amber and I are inside our pool gate doing CPR on our son."
Over the weekend, while the crooner was performing at the festival, Bartlett and their kids, son, Lincoln, 5, and daughter, London, 7, did some sightseeing while in Chicago, including visiting the Field Museum. Afterward, she posted a photo of their kids posing alongside Sue, a T-Rex skeleton on display at the natural history museum.
“We just happened to be in the same city as the “biiiigggggggest T-Rex” ever found. We had to make a trip to see it in honor of River,” she wrote alongside the image of her kids smiling beside the fossil statue. “This dinosaur was discovered in FAITH, South Dakota by a woman named Sue. And he died by a River ♥️. Open your eyes and you will see signs all around you. We think just maybe, Riv is having the best time of his life in Heaven with this ?.”
“Getting back on the road and back into daily life without River has not been easy in the slightest,” she continued. “Every single thing reminds me of him, and all I can think about is how he would love exploring and seeing all that we are seeing. I see his name everywhere, I see little red-headed toddlers everywhere. I miss his silly personality and his bright light. I see his face in our other kiddos. I have this pit in my stomach constantly, because I’m trying to make life as normal as possible for our other 2 incredible kiddos, London and Lincoln, while hurting so bad inside. I look around at everyone else and wonder if anyone is going through something like we are.”
“Dumb little things don’t matter anymore,” she concluded. “My family does. My faith does. We’ve got this, because God’s got us ✝️. Thank you all for your continued support, prayers and love. It really does help us so much. #livelikeriv.”
See more River in the clip below.
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