'And life is worth the living ... '

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Easton Oliver Branham, son of Heather Atkinson Branham and Jeffrey Branham, was gravely injured a year ago today, July 31, in a drowning accident. The 2-year-old bundle of energy passed away days later, on Aug. 3. His mother wrote this as a tribute to her son and a warning to other parents. We have shared it with her permission. Three-hundred and sixty-five days ago, our world got flipped upside down. You never think something like this can happen to you. That's because you're a "better parent than that." But please, don't kid yourself into thinking tragedies can't or won't happen to you. Our child, Easton Oliver Branham, was wearing his life-jacket minutes before he fell in that pool. But he figured out how to get it off before anyone was aware of it. I've been brought up to believe that God knows your life down to when you're born to when He chooses to take you from this Earth. So, had it not been that pool, it would have been any number of other things that would have taken our child's life that day. I have no doubt about that. Honestly, when I heard the screams from inside the house, I thought someone was playing a really unfunny joke. That was until I saw Easton lying on that pool deck not breathing on his own. With the help of our friend Wade, we did CPR until EMS showed up and worked tirelessly on him. When we finally got to McLeod after rain delays and a much-to-long ambulance ride, we were given the news that, even if Easton pulled through this, he would never be the same energetic boy he had been just hours prior. Seeing him hooked up to all those machines with wires and tubes and what not was torture, but we sat there, hoping and praying a miracle would happen and he would just wake up. Unfortunately, things didn't turn out the way we would have hoped and, over several days, he steadily went further down hill until he was declared brain dead on Aug. 3. God bless the doctors, nurses, surgeon, EMS personnel and everyone else that tries their hardest to put that spark of life back in his eyes. But I know in my heart my child left this Earth before the ambulance even arrived. Treasure your children, parents, siblings, etc. You don't have an infinite amount of tomorrows. There's nothing I wouldn't do to wrap my arms around my boy and smell his sweet stinky feet just to hear his laugh again. This is the worst thing I have ever been though in my life, but it has made my faith so much stronger. Death is not scary to me any longer. I know when I leave this Earth, I'll be reunited with the most perfect little boy, and I honestly can not wait. "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, just because He lives."