Heres the deal, I feel like I needed to clarify the events that occurred that led up to my dad's death. I think some people may have a misunderstanding of what happened that day on the beach. Witnessing the event myself, I think I can bring understanding to the misunderstood views. The point of this post is to inform you what about what happened that day, not a personal blog post and I will try my best to keep it that way. (I think I will be posting a tear jerker on the one-year anniversary of my dad's death about this day, that content will be of a personal nature.)
On May 31, 2014 at Huntington beach, Pete Radke, my dad, lost his life. We had gone to the beach to celebrate my sister's 14th birthday, which was two days before. The people that came along to the beach with us were several of my sisters friends, Brynn (my sister), me, my dad and a family friend, Jennifer Corrigan. Mrs. Corrigan and my dad both volunteered themselves to replace my Mom about 45 minutes before we were to leave. Her back went out for no apparent reason.
When we arrived at the beach it wasn't long until a young girl had been pulled out into the lake after attempting to swim. The conditions were pretty bad; the waters was cold a rough, and it was very windy. She began calling for help; onlookers began to take action. A handful of men jumped in trying to assist the young girl. My father was one of those men, but he had entered the water off a line of rocks that juts into the water, missing the bigger waves; where the other men jumped in straight off the beach and were pushed back by the powerful waves. As we watched from the beach, my dad struggled to get to the young girl, after about two minutes (best guess), He reached her. We later found out by the girl he saved, Angel, age 16, that he was able to introduce himself and reassure her. After taking her by the arm, he tried to swim them back to the shore. But a large wave separated them and they both began to drift away from shore.
At this point I believe it had been 10-15 minutes since he entered the water (again, my best guess) and law enforcement and rescue workers showed up. As the chaos starting to rise up, things become a little blurry for me as they cleared the beach and the fear really hit me. I'll do my best to continue as accurately as I can. Angel and my dad had been pulled so far out that there were unrecognizable from the beach. I couldn't tell which figure was my dad and which was Angel. Then soon after that there was only one figure visible. The rescue workers, at some point, reached this figure and rescued who I found out was Angel. There was no other figure visible at this point, but they kept looking.
I decided it was best to leave the beach and be with my sister, who had left towards the beginning of the ordeal. I was taken back up to the parking lot to be with my sister and friends, soon after my mom and brother arrived with my Aunt and Uncle. The whole time I was on the beach, Mrs. Corrigan was by my side. We waited in the parking lot for about four hours. For the first two, it was a search for a man, then at around the two hour mark, we were informed that is was changing to a search for a body. As we were about to leave, were were informed again that his body just washed on to the beach.
It is assumed by my family and I that he hit his head on a rock and drowned.
One of the most common misconceptions is that my dad died trying to save Angel. I strongly believe, along with my family that he did save her life. I think he pushed her to safety and that she would have more than likely died without my dad's last act of love.
If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to ask me. I am very open about all of this and I would love to clear up anything for you. I hope this post did just that.
