The Callahan brothers were known at home and around their town as #1, #2, and #3. Cooper, 11, Ben, 10 and Scout, 9, went everywhere together. “They just had so much fun,” said their father, Dave Callahan. “It was just a great little gang.”

On July 7, the boys decided to go swimming in a roadside pond near their home in Branford, Connecticut. They didn’t know the danger of swimming there after a heavy rainfall. The current sucked Ben into the culvert, where he drowned.

Now it’s just #1 and #3 — and the Callahan family is relying on Jesus more than ever. And it’s because of Jesus that they have hope.

No Regrets

On that Friday of Ben’s drowning, the boys had originally wanted to jump off a bridge. Their father said no, but they could go swimming. “It was completely high tide and it looks like the greatest place in the world to go swimming,” he said. “You just stand there and you look at it and you go, ‘I’d go swimming there.'”

Dave has no regrets allowing the boys to swim that day. “They were boys being boys and that’s what they should have done. I wouldn’t have had it any other way, honestly.” Besides, he believes it was Ben’s time to go. “If it was Ben’s time, it could have been a tree, it could have been a car, it could have been bad food, it could have been anything. The method of his end I don’t think speaks to any problem.”

“Ten years ago if God had put out an advertisement that said, ‘Hey, does anybody want to have three awesome little kids that are going to affect the world and jam 10 huge years of life in 10 years and there’s a chance that at the end of 10 years you’re going to lose one, would you sign up for that job?’ I think everybody would. I definitely would have. So, I’m OK with a 10 year project.”

Dave says it’s “silly” to play the “what if” and the “what could have been” games. “It’s not the ‘what could have been game.’ He was perfect for the time he was here.”

Relying on Their Faith

On Sunday, July 9, the family and town of Branford held a vigil in Ben’s memory. At least 1,000 people attended the evening vigil. Ben’s brother Scout spoke, as did Dave. The Callahans quoted Scripture and said their faith has kept them strong through this difficult time.

“‘When I’m at my weakest that’s when God can be the strongest,’ and so that’s what we’re relying on right now,” said Dave. “Let’s rely on our faith, create a new normal and love and appreciate the two boys that we still have that are still here who are little heroes.”

Several people spoke of Ben and many mentioned what a good boy he was. Dave clarified that while he was a good boy, that’s not why he was in heaven. “Ben is in heaven right now not because he was good. … He’s in heaven because he had a good relationship with Jesus.”

Dave also spoke to those in the crowd about the importance of knowing Jesus. He “urged people to commit themselves to the Lord now, and said that if Ben had planned to wait to do that until he got into high school, it would have been too late,” reported the New Haven Register.

Dave is able to look past his grief and see the good that is taking place even after the loss of his son.

“Not to say that it doesn’t hurt,” said Dave. “It obviously does, but it’s alright and with the flood of people who have reached out to me and have said, ‘Hey, you know, I haven’t picked up my Bible in 10 years, but I got out of bed tonight and I went and I read it.’”

“If he’s in heaven, that’s awesome, that’s where he’s supposed to be,” Dave said. “But if his story, the fact that he had to go in 10 [years], brings a thousand more people to heaven in the end of time, it’s totally worth it.”