Virginia

"I'll Hold You Up From Below" — The Father Who Jumped Into a Septic Tank to Save His Son: The Story of Thomas Vander Woude

In 2008, when his twenty-year-old son Josie, who has Down syndrome, fell into a septic tank in rural Virginia, 66-year-old Thomas Vander Woude jumped in without hesitation and held his son above the toxic water on his shoulders until rescuers arrived. Josie survived; Thomas did not.