A heroic father and one of his sons drowned in a river after he managed to save his other son from drowning.
Jeremias Machado Ribeiro, 41, and his son, seven-year-old Bernardo de Barros Ribeiro, were carried away by the current on Christmas Day.
Searches began that day and resumed the next morning (26 Dec), with their bodies recovered that afternoon.
READ MORE: Baffling CCTV shows car driver using train tracks as a shortcut
“They were playing, kicking a ball, and it was really hot, so they decided to go to the river for a swim,” Jeremias’s older sister, Nilza Ribeiro Massafra, told local media.
“They had been there a few times before, and everyone knew how to swim.
“Jeremias and all of us grew up by the river in Rio de Janeiro. But unfortunately, the tragedy happened.”
The family – 11 adults and four children – were staying at a holiday home in the countryside of Jerônimo Monteiro, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nilza recalled: “His eldest son moved from the shallow area and fell into a deep hole.
“Jeremias jumped in after him to try to save him, and thank God, he managed to get the boy out.
“But he lost his strength, and the current carried him away.
“Bernardo got close to the same spot and was swept away as well. My son tried to help, but he fainted.”
Jeremias, from Rio de Janeiro, lived in Itaboraí, where he worked as a boilermaker and was studying to become a pastor.
He had travelled with his wife and three children to the property for Christmas, as reported by Need To Know.
The surviving children are 11-years-old and five-months-old.
The five had been scheduled to return home on Saturday (27 Dec), the day Jeremias and Bernardo were laid to rest.
Jeremias had completed all his ministerial exams with strong results.
In his last sermon, on 21 December, he told his congregation: “We don’t know the day or the hour when Jesus will return.
“We don’t know the moment He will call us, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring, so we have to make the most of the present.”
Nilza said: “Jeremias was my youngest brother. He was always loved and spoiled by us older siblings because he arrived unexpectedly.
“He was mature, studious, and intelligent, and he grew into a man of deep faith. He was a true Christian, a man who lived what he preached.”
She described her nephew: “Bernardo was a tiny boy, the youngest of them all, but very clever, full of energy, mischievous, and cheerful – there was never a dull moment with him.”
READ MORE: Young couple killed in separate motorbike crashes hours apart
