Husband and Hero Saves Wife's Life to Lose his own in Minnesota Flood
"He always told me, 'If anything ever happened I would die for you...I love you that much.'"
EDITOR'S NOTE: Perhaps one of the reasons that stories, such as the one below, so grab our hearts, is because they're examples of the greatest kind of love?the love that lays down its life for another. Jesus told His disciples just before giving His own life to be beaten and broken on behalf of all mankind, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this that one lay down his life for his friends." ?Aimee Herd, BCN.
(Spring Grove, Minnesota)?Recent severe flooding in the midsection of the U.S. has been blamed for at least 13 deaths. One of those involved a heroic rescue, however. (Photo: CBS)
Dawn and David Blackburn had been married for five years, and on more than one occasion, David told his wife that he loved her enough to give his life for her.
"He always told me," recalled Dawn, "'If anything ever happened I would die for you, Dawn, I love you that much.'"
The couple had no idea those words would prove to be prophetic when rising flood waters this past Sunday morning at midnight, swept their car off the road, plunging the two?along with a friend who was with them?into a deep, wet, swirling darkness. Reaching for a tree, David lifted his wife into the limbs while he remained with the car for two hours yelling for help, after which he disappeared.
Another hour passed before Dawn and her friend were rescued from the tree. David was later found in his car, he had drowned.
Mrs. Blackburn told reporters, "He put me into the tree and he said, 'Dawn...I love you.'"
Dawn decided to share publicly what David did, especially so her two young children would hear and know what a hero their father was.
