Family mourns Ethan Lawrence, 19, killed by lightning strike in Davie – NBC 6 South Florida

A lightning strike is perhaps the most inexplicable way to lose a loved one. Ethan Lawrence, just 19 years old, died Sunday after he was apparently hit directly while jogging in Vista View Park in Davie.

“Every parent says their child is incredible, but my child was incredible,” said Lourdes Lawrence, Ethan’s mother.

Lawrence was a star athlete at West Broward High School who attended 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 to be a walk-on on NSU’s cross-country team.

“I’m still in shock and still trying to process all of this. How it happened. Within seconds, he texted me in the morning: ‘Good morning, honey. I woke up late today,'” Lares said. “The last thing he sent me was a picture of his baby.”

The Lawrence family is devastated but came together on Monday to tell the world what happened when the lightning struck.

“I’m so happy and grateful to have had 19 wonderful years with my son,” said Lourdes Lawrence. “We had an unbreakable bond, he would text me every morning in college when I was a sophomore, ‘Good morning mom, I’m on my way to the run with the team,’ ‘Hey mom, I’m back from the run with the team, my legs feel like bricks’ – he would just tell me about his day, Facetime me, call me.”

“My wife once asked him, ‘Do you have any regrets?’ No, nothing. He doesn’t regret leaving Jacksonville, coming here, working here or anything else. He’s enjoyed his life,” said Ethan’s father, Patrick Lawrence.

“I want to strangle someone, but there’s nothing I can do. I couldn’t help my baby in the last minutes of his life,” Lourdes said. “I couldn’t run after him, I couldn’t run beside him – get me, not him.”

Then she held up a small cross set with diamonds.

“I gave my son a gold chain with a cross on it for his graduation,” she said. “Today we went to the spot where he was hit and Ethan took me to where he was hit. I saw the hole in the ground and I looked down and my husband said, ‘Look, there’s his cross.'” He’s telling me, ‘Mommy, I’m OK, I’m OK, you’re OK.'”

Ethan ran and won the first Aden Perry 5K to honor a young man who died trying to save a drowning man. Since then, Aden and Ethan’s mother have become friends. Now they share the same terrible pain.

“The only consolation for me is that he died doing what he loved, running,” said Ethan’s mother.