Veronica Drew (@veronica_drew_) tragically lost her three-year-old son 12 years ago after he drowned in her mom and dad’s pool, 18 hours after they got there for a family vacation.
Veronica has kept quiet about the specifics surrounding her son, yet she is very critical of drowning accidents that involve kids due to the mistakes that people make surrounding the tragedies.
“I think that it’s only fair that I share with you all of the mistakes that I made. It is only fair that I tell you what happened even though I don’t owe anybody anything,” Veronica explained in her video.
She’s hoping that opening up about such a sensitive subject helps convey how well she gets it, and potentially hearing her story could help save more lives.
When Veronica lost her son, she was 34. Her children were 6, 10, 6, 4, and then Garrett, who was 3. Veronica grew up learning how to swim. She was a lifeguard for seven years and was very serious about water safety.
She rescued several people from drowning and performed CPR, even coming close to losing some of those individuals she rescued from the water.
In 1999, Veronica’s mom and dad bought a new house in Texas and put in a pool so everyone could enjoy swimming in their backyard.
Her mom and dad declined to put up a fence when the pool company asked if they wanted one, because Veronica thinks they wanted to save money and do it themselves.
As the fence was being completed, Veronica’s siblings started having kids. The fence around the pool was finished in pieces throughout the next decade.
Veronica didn’t have her own kids at the time, but she was not thrilled about her parents’ slow progress on the pool fence; finally, it was complete. However, there was no self-closing hinge gate on the fence, which Veronica pushed them to install.
One summer, Veronica and her dad drove with her kids from their home in New Mexico to her mom and dad’s house in Texas for a family vacation, and Veronica instantly went to check the pool at 8 p.m., which didn’t have a lock on the gate.
Veronica knew she had to keep the kids inside for the rest of the night, and in the morning, she was going to try to find a lock or go to the local hardware store to get one.
Veronica had no way of knowing that would be her last night with her toddler, Garrett. The following morning was a Saturday, and Veronica’s parents had to leave early to attend to some business out of town.
Her parents were not home, and as soon as the kids got up, they were excited to go swimming, so Veronica took them to the pool and supervised them.
Veronica planned to work on Garrett’s swimming skills with just the two of them later on the day after nap time. After lunch, the kids went back into the pool, but after it grew too hot and Garrett needed to take a nap, Veronica rounded up the kids and brought them back into the house.
Veronica was exhausted from the long road trip and hopped in the shower. But first, she put Garrett in a diaper as they were in the process of potty training, and she didn’t want him to have an accident.
Garett really wanted to wear his swimsuit, but it was still wet, so she said he had to wear his “big boy clothes,” while they took a nap, but then she let him put on his swimsuit to make him happy.
Veronica wonders if that felt like permission to go back to the pool, but there is no way of knowing what Garrett was thinking. Right before Veronica stepped into the shower, she had a feeling she had to go back out and check the pool.
She hadn’t been able to find a lock or make it to the hardware store that morning, so she was looking around for one. She found one, but it had a number combination, so she called her dad to ask for that information so she could close the lock completely, but he didn’t pick up.
Veronica placed the lock on the pool gate and thought it was better than nothing, and it seemed like a deterrent for the kids. Additionally, she put towels and deflated pool floats over the gate to cover the hinges, thinking it wouldn’t be something Garrett would walk through.
Looking back, Veronica wishes she had put all of the kids in the car and driven to the hardware store or gone through her dad’s workshop to find chains to secure the gate.
She was just so tired that day. So after doing what she could with the gate, she went back into the house and locked the deadbolt on the door, not knowing it was broken.
The kids were on the couch watching a show, and Veronica asked her oldest son, Ethan, who was 10, to please watch the kids. Ethan was very grown-up, but ultimately, Veronica says that it was not Ethan’s responsibility to watch his younger siblings.
Ethan has blamed himself for over a decade for what would come next. The defense attorney from the insurance company would later ask why Ethan wasn’t watching Garrett, which Veronica says is disgusting.
Next, Veronica did get in the shower, and Garrett followed after her, wanting to get in too. She told Garrett she wanted alone time, and she called out for her older kids to come get him as he was driving her crazy and didn’t want him in there.
Veronica, of course, feels terrible that those were the last words Garrett would hear her say. She finished up and called out again to the kids to ask if they were ok, and they responded yes.
Veronica then walked out to the kids, who were still on the couch, and realized Garrett was gone. None of the kids knew where he was.
Veronica felt like something had turned her head towards the window, looking out into the backyard, and she pulled back the curtain to see that the towels were missing and the gate to the pool was open.
Veronica raced outside, jumped in the pool, and grabbed Garrett, but it was too late. Veronica is so unbelievably brave for sharing her story, and I am so deeply sorry for her loss.
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
