A lightning strike might be the most inexplicable way to lose a loved one. Ethan Lawrence, only 19 years old, died Sunday after what appears to be a direct hit as he was running at Vista View Park in Davie.
“Every parent says their kid is amazing, but my kid was amazing,” said Lourdes Lawrence, Ethan’s mother.
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Lawrence was a star athlete at West Broward High School who went to Jacksonville University on a cross country scholarship. He transferred to Nova Southeastern University when his girlfriend, Andrea Lares, had a baby six months ago. Lawrence was training in a bid to make the NSU cross country team as a walk-on.
“I’m still in shock, I’m still trying to process all of it, the way it happened, in a matter of seconds, he texted me in the morning, 'Good morning love, I woke up late today,'" Lares said. “Last thing he sent me was a picture of his baby.”
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The Lawrence family is reeling but gathered Monday to let the world know what was lost in that flash of lightning.
“I’m so grateful and thankful that I had 19 beautiful years with my son," Lourdes Lawrence said. "We had an unbreakable bond, he would text me every morning in college, as a college student, 'Good morning momma, I’m on my way to run with the team,' 'Hey mom, I’m back from running with the team, my legs feel like bricks' — just telling me his day, Facetiming me, calling me."
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“My wife asked him one time, do you have any regrets? No, nothing, no regret of leaving Jacksonville or coming here, or going to work here or anything, he enjoyed his life,” said Ethan’s dad, Patrick Lawrence.
“I want to strangle someone but there’s nothing I can do, I couldn’t help my baby the last minutes of his life," Lourdes said. "I couldn’t run for him, I couldn’t run next to him — get me, not him."
She then held up a small cross, studded with diamonds.
“I gave my son, when he graduated, a gold chain with a cross," she said. "Today we went to the site and Ethan led me to where he was struck and I saw the hole in the ground and I looked down and my husband said look, there’s his cross. That’s him telling me, 'Mom, I’m ok, I’m ok, you be ok.'"
Ethan ran and won the first Aden Perry 5K race, to honor a young man who died while trying to rescue a drowning person. Since then, Aden’s mom and Ethan’s mom have become friends. Now they share the same horrific pain.
“The only thing that gives me comfort is he died doing what he loved, running,” Ethan’s mother said.
