A father’s last act came to light last Friday when floodwaters tore through central Texas. It is scary and sad at the same time.
Jeff Ramsey, 61, and his wife Tanya, 46, were resting in their Airstream trailer at the HTR RV Park in Kerrville when the Guadalupe River rose swiftly, bringing a wall of water slamming across everything in its path.
Just before the storm hit their trailer, Jeff picked up his phone to call his two kids, Jake and Rachel. He knew they probably wouldn’t pick up. He still left them a voicemail that they will always remember.
“Hey, buddy. I really like you. It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to do it. Jeff said in a sad note, “Tell Rachey I love her.”
Jake told the New York Post that his dad’s voice was full of anxiety, which he had never heard before.
A few while later, Jeff sent Rachel another message. There was a lot of water flowing with Tanya’s horrified screams in the background:
“We’re dying! We’re dying!”
No one heard from them again after that.
A tragic failure to warn.
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The RV park sent Jeff an evacuation notice after the flood had already carried them away. Jake said that Jeff got the message just as he was saying goodbye to Rachel, which was definitely too late to do anything about it.
He was really upset about the timing.
Jeff couldn’t save himself or Tanya, but he did have time to warn Tanya’s mother and brother, who lived in a cabin nearby.
His call woke them up just in time. Later, they saw that cabin was completely destroyed.
Jake said, “He saved them because they would have slept in and washed away.” “His actions saved their lives.”
Search teams later recovered Tanya’s body. People could tell who she was because of her unusual tattoos. Jeff is not here yet.
“She was our mom too.”
Tanya wasn’t just a stepmom; she was family.
“We were her kids,” Jake said.
“We have a mom, but we were her babies.”
Tanya owned a wig store in Dallas and had beaten breast cancer. Jeff had been selling insurance for a long time. He was also very active in the Adaptive Training Foundation, a gym in the Dallas area that assists amputees and other people with physical difficulties get stronger.
“This man has a deeper sense of duty than most.” Thank you, brother, for always being there for me and for all the other people you served at Adaptive Training Foundation over the past ten years. I’ll always be grateful for that last huge hug we had last week.
“Take it easy, my brother. “We will carry your name on with love and light,” wrote Morris Brossette, one of Jeff’s friends, on Facebook.
A small miracle: Chloe is alive.
The family got some great news in the thick of all the anguish. They found Chloe, the couple’s beloved whippet, alive in a nearby animal shelter. They had saved her years earlier.
Jake is still unhappy over the death and thinks it was wrong that the government didn’t tell him ahead of time. He believes that more could have been done to protect lives.
During a memorial service, he talked to Texas State Sen. Tan Parker, who is claimed to have promised him that the alarm system would be fixed.
Jake, unfortunately, it was too little, too late.
“The only thing I know is that my dad got a text after it was too late.” He said goodbye to my sister and myself.
As the water level drops and the town counts its casualties, Jeff’s farewell letter to his kids is a sobering reminder of how quickly lives can change or be lost when nature is angry.
We are thinking of and praying for everyone who has been affected by this awful event. Thinking of the Ramsey family and everyone else who was hurt!
