INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (CNN/WXIN) – An Indiana couple is mourning the loss of their 2-and-a-half-year old child. He died after accidentally closing his own neck in the window of a car.
His mother said he was an active little boy.
“He always liked to ride tractors, go to work with daddy,” said Lisa Vanderkleed.
At only 2-and-a-half-years old, Logan Vanderkleed was already what you’d expect a little boy growing up on an Indiana farm to be like.
“There’s nothing he didn’t want to climb or try and do himself,” said Drew Vanderkleed, Logan’s father.
And it’s those memories of their little blonde-headed boy that’s keeping Drew and Lisa Vanderkleed so optimistic as they stare down so much pain.
“We go to do something and it reminds us of Logan, and it hurts. We cry. And then when that passes, we find some joy,” said Drew.
Last week, Logan and his 5-year-old sister, Kendra, had just gotten back to the family’s Lafayette farm from lunch with their dad.
“It was hot. It was naptime. I decided to leave them in the car with the a/c on, about 30 feet from where they were working, so I could keep an eye on them.”
But at some point, Logan woke up, somehow rolling down the car window and then back up again, catching his neck.
“Looked up one time and there he was, hanging outside the window, his head.”
He was rushed to a hospital, but after a week of fighting, passed away Thursday morning.
His parents now turning to God for strength and peace.
“Out of all this, I hope when people look at us and our composure, they don’t really see us, that it’s Christ in us. He is what’s holding us up.”
His love for Logan Facebook page, with more than 40,000 likes, a fitting tribute, his parents say, to the power of prayer and the life their little boy lived.
“I think their prayers is immensely making us at peace, too.”