Neighbor 'gave his life for my child'

Neighbor 'gave his life for my child'
Indiana man, dad drown trying to save 10-year-old boy
By Stacy St. Clair | Chicago Tribune reporter
September 16, 2008
Todd and Kari Zehner grappled with conflicting emotions Monday: joy that their 10-year-old son, Doug, had survived a near drowning and deep sorrow that two next-door neighbors died trying to save him.

Doug and two friends were dipping their feet in the swollen creek near his Chesterton, Ind., home Sunday morning when he slipped and was sucked into the round mouth of a steel culvert. Next door, Mark Thanos, a high school English teacher and coach, heard his wife scream, sped out of the house and jumped into the roiling creek. When Thanos struggled, his 74-year-old father, John, followed him into the water. Both would die at the scene.

The strong current pushed Doug through the 3-foot-wide culvert and dumped him out about 20 feet downstream. Victoria Thanos pulled the boy from the water, unaware that her 48-year-old husband and her father-in-law had not resurfaced.

The Zehners and Thanoses now realize that one rain-soaked weekend in September has forever linked the families in tragedy. The families were quick to console each other. And in keeping with Mark Thanos' legacy, everyone made a concerted effort to comfort the curly-haired boy who never meant for any of it to happen.
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