Words cannot describe the pain of losing a parent, but it is even harder to describe my conflicting feelings of both pride and joy that result from knowing that my father died a hero. He proved that willpower trumps all else.

He intentionally allowed himself to drown and to suffer what is known as one of the most horrific deaths one can experience, so that others wouldn’t find the same fate. In one final act of sacrificial love, he gave his life so that a child could continue his. But in the end, he acted on instinct alone, putting the lives of two others above his own. My father made many mistakes in his life. It is days like today which remind me that we are all born to broken people on their most honest day of living. Rescue divers searched as long as the light allowed, and his body was finally recovered early this morning (4/27/20). After the child was recovered, my father slipped below the surface one final time and never came back up. Somehow my dad had the strength to get the boy up, but I was told there was no more life in his eyes when he did it. They said that it looked like an angel had lifted them both out of the lake. Witnesses said that it was obvious my dad used every last ounce of his strength and his final dying breath to dive under and lift the boy above the water and into the arms of another man who was attempting to help. He helped the woman, and immediately dove under the water to help the boy, who had begun to sink underwater. My father, with no hesitation, jumped off the boat and into action.

The boys mom went after him to try and help, but in his panic he began to take her under with him. He panicked, as one is wont to do when faced with a surprise like that, and in his panic he forgot how to swim. A young boy ventured too far out from the sand bar they had stopped at and found himself falling off a sudden drop into deceptively deep water. Yesterday (4/26/20), my father was out on the lake with friends. Today marks the greatest loss I have felt in my life thus far. A letter from Dallon Robinette, son of Carl (CJ) Robinette.:

Made by Alisa Anderson