Rain-swollen Tuckaseigee River claims 4-year-old; family mourns

By Lynn Hotaling

Jordan Monteith, 4, was fishing with his mother, Lisa Monteith, on South River Road in Webster last Thursday evening (May 2) when he slipped into the Tuckaseigee's rain-swollen waters.

Though his mother managed to pull him from the water and sought help from members of the Webster Baptist Church, who called 911, Jordan did not respond to CPR and was pronounced dead at Harris Regional Hospital.

Jordan's death leaves his mother and grandparents, Denver and Doris Monteith of Sylva, missing the child Doris Monteith called the "light of our lives."

"I feel like the glow is gone, and the light is snuffed out of my heart," said Jordan's mother. "We were best pals."

"He loved to help me garden - he had his own little tools," she said. "Every day when we'd get home, Jordan would run to the iris bed to see which one had bloomed that day."

When they discovered a bird's nest in one of her hanging baskets, she and Jordan watched the nest every day until the eggs hatched, and the baby birds flew away, Lisa Monteith said.

"The last one flew away last week," she said. "Jordan said they were his birds."

Jordan loved his cat, Inky, and would put his matchbox cars on the floor for the two of them to play with, his mother said.

"Jordan would push the cars, then the cat and Jordan would chase cars," Lisa Monteith said. "They'd play ball together, too."

Jordan loved to paint and color, his mother said, and his grandmother believes he might have grown up to be an artist.

"I believe he'd have been an artist," Doris Monteith said. "He didn't just color a dinosaur brown, he colored it every color."

Early mornings, when Lisa would drop Jordan off so she could go to work, were some of the best times for Jordan and his grandparents, his grandmother said. "Sometimes he'd sleep on his papaw's stomach - Jordan never could get close enough to his papaw; he loved him so much," Doris Monteith said.

But Jordan didn't sleep much, his grandmother said.

"Jordan was so energetic he had to stay awake," she said. "He had so much to do before he left, and he enjoyed every minute of it."

"He'd say to me, 'OK, Nana, let's go to the kitchen and have green eggs and ham.' I colored his eggs green every day," Doris Monteith said.

Her grandson loved to ride with his grandfather in the truck, she said, and didn't like it when his papaw couldn't take him to Rocking Horse preschool.

"Saturday was a special time for Jordan and Papaw," Doris Monteith said. "They'd take the trash, then go to McDonald's and play. Then they'd come back here and play ball."

Jordan loved his school and loved his teachers, his grandmother said, and was real particular about his clothes.

"It had to be blue jeans, and he wanted Papaw to wear blue jeans every day he took Jordan to school," she said. "Jordan wanted his papaw to wear the same color shirt as his, too."

Marilyn Newcomb of Rochester, N.Y., a friend of Lisa Monteith's, was present at Jordan's birth.

"From day one Jordan showed an eagerness for life. He was like a sponge soaking up every bit of goodness God gave us," Newcomb said. "Jordan was a very energetic, free-flowing spirit."

Jordan exemplified Jesus's instructions that people should "love one another as I have loved you," said Newcomb. "That was God's greatest gift to Jordan - Jordan had a way of making everyone feel that they were his favorite."

Her grandson loved Scotts Creek Baptist Church and everyone in the church, Doris Monteith said.

"I don't know of a child that has ever loved church so much," she said. "It didn't take but one time for him to learn the way, and after that he'd watch to make sure we were going the right way - he looked for the steeple every time."

Doris Monteith directed the children's choir, another of her grandson's favorite activities.

"I taught him all the songs - we sang all the time," she said. "And he and his papaw made up silly songs.

Denver Monteith saved a spot in the garden for his grandson to plant, Doris Monteith said, and now they'll plant it for Jordan.

"Lisa will make a memorial garden for Jordan here at our house," Doris Monteith said.

When Jordan and his mother first moved back here from New York about 18 months ago, he didn't know much about country life, his grandmother said.

"We thought he was a little city boy but then we looked and he was standing on his head in the plowed dirt of the garden," she said.

Her grandson was turning into a country boy, Doris Monteith said. He loved to hear his papaw talk about turkey hunting, and he was getting interested in fishing.

"(Lisa and Jordan) had gone to buy a fishing pole for his cousin (last Thursday), and Jordan wanted a fishing pole too," Doris Monteith said. "He wanted to go fishing bad."

Jackson County Rescue Squad member Steve Gray, the first squad member on the scene May 2, said EMS Director Toby Moore was already performing CPR when Gray arrived at the Webster Church.

The 911 call, which came at almost 9 p.m., indicated a child was in the river near Webster Baptist Church, Gray said. After arriving at the scene, he learned that the mother had pulled the child from the river and transported him in her car to the church parking lot, Gray said.

"The river was up and there had been a violent thunderstorm," Gray said. "It was still raining though the storm had passed through."

EMS Director Moore reached the church quickly because he had been at Ingles when he heard the page, he said.

"Somebody had him out of the car and was performing basic life support," Moore said. "I continued life support but there was no response."

Moore said he understood that the boy had been in the river for 5 to 7 minutes.

Detective Jimmy Clawson of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department confirmed the incident occurred along South River Road. The child was carried some distance downstream before his mother pulled him from the water, Clawson said.

From all indications the drowning was accidental, although the investigation is continuing, said Clawson.

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