Tom lost a cousin to a major heart attack after Christmas. He was 67 and not having any health issues. And then on Jan.28 we lost a nephew Jeremiah Smith to a kayak accident on the Allegheny River He was 21. He was going to college in PA for a pilot's license and working for a construction crew and he happened to see a ball on the other side of the river and decided to try to get it. in the kayak. He had no life jacket and was using a snow shovel for an oar! The whole thing was so senseless. The guys who worked with him told him to be careful because none of them could swim so they couldn't help him if anything happened. Well, he got to the other side of the river and then capsized. He hung on for a short time and then never came back up, they have been trying to find him ever since. Many rescue crews have tried, they had helicopters out, drones, divers, even some type of sub and no Jeremiah. They even dropped the level of the Tionesta Dam thinking that might help but nothing. Jeremiah's parents are the missionaries out in S. Dakota with the Indians and had just got home from visiting us and then this happened. My sister-in-law flew them back to PA and they've been here ever since. Please pray for them and my granddaughter Nicole. She is really taking this hard. They were close buddies and for a long time she didn't accept the fact he was gone. She and her fiancé Jesse went down to PA on Sat w/ my brother and sister in-law and I think it helped her put things in prospective. My EX-daughter in law (Mark's 1st wife), called us on Fri and asked us to come over and help try to calm her down and we were doing good until John (Jeremiah's brother) called and she started crying again so I'm glad she went down to PA and actually was with all the family I believe it helped her. We couldn't go down with them to PA, but we talked to all of them on the phone and they are trying to process all of it. He was such a good guy and never drank, smoked, did drugs, or anything. A good Christian young man. Such a senseless tragedy. We all said the Smith's seemed to have a curse on us. Tom lost his 2 brothers to a drunk driver in 1976, Linda lost John (her, husband (Jeremiah's grandfather), Linda's sister lost 2 husbands (one in the car accident in 76 and her husband after that drowned in a swimming accident and hen last summer Linda's sister was almost killed by some low life that slit her throat in a parking lot and stole her car. It just keeps happening! So please pray for all of us as we are trying to come to grips with this now. Sorry, this is so long but I believe in posse prayers and if we all pray, I believe they will find him so the family can have closure. The only thing is, the longer it goes on, it's going to be harder to identify him So please pray hard we all get the closure the family needs.
thanks Ship. Still haven't found him. Since it is the Allegheny River, the current was very strong so he could have went further down the river than what they are searching. They have called off the search until Tues. Just praying we will have closure soon.
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on 2/4/2025, 6:18 pm
He was 21. He was going to college in PA for a pilot's license and working for a construction crew and he happened to see a ball on the other side of the river and decided to try to get it. in the kayak. He had no life jacket and was using a snow shovel for an oar! The whole thing was so senseless. The guys who worked with him told him to be careful because none of them could swim so they couldn't help him if anything happened. Well, he got to the other side of the river and then capsized. He hung on for a short time and then never came back up, they have been trying to find him ever since. Many rescue crews have tried, they had helicopters out, drones, divers, even some type of sub and no Jeremiah. They even dropped the level of the Tionesta Dam thinking that might help but nothing.