Only on 13: Loved ones of good Samaritan who died during San Joaquin River rescue speak out
MANTECA - The family of the man who died while trying to rescue a mother and her 5-year-old in the San Joaquin River this week said he was a hero even before jumping in the water.
Eddie Gerardo Cervantes Lora was a husband and father of two teens and a 4-year-old girl.
"It doesn't surprise her that he did this because he would always help out everybody," said Eddie's wife Norma Altamirano, who spoke with CBS13 through his niece as a translator.
"He was a very responsible father," said Altamirano. "He was caring."
Altamirano said she had just seen her husband during his lunch break about an hour before he jumped into the water. She wants to thank her husband for the time that he was in her life and for everything he did to provide for his family of five.
He spent most of his days doing any job under the sun on a dairy farm in Manteca.
"Last one to leave the job and never complained," said Eddie's boss, Frank Borges. "How do you get a better employee than that?"
Jorge Valladares worked with Eddie and was driving his pick-up truck with Eddie in the passenger seat on their way to another job when it happened Tuesday.
"The last thing I seen is him give his last push to push them closer to the shore, and then all of a sudden, he got lost in the water," Valladares said.
Valladares said Eddie had spotted the mother and 5-year-old screaming for help as their car was sinking into the river.
"He tells me 'Stop, stop,' and the second I stop the truck, he runs back towards the bridge down into the river and he didn't think about it twice," Valladares said.
Valladares said Eddie first got the 5-year-old safely to shore and then went back in for the mother. Loved ones say his lack of hesitation is the reason the mother and daughter made it to shore safely.
"I am just proud," Borges said.
The mother who Eddie jumped in to save is currently in the intensive care unit at San Joaquin General Hospital. Authorities have not released her name.
"What he did was amazing," Valladares said. "He was a hero and a good friend of mine."
Eddie was a man who loved horses and the outdoors, but his family said he was a hero who did not wear a cape but a cowboy hat.
"She wants to tell him that she loves him with all her heart and that she is very proud of him," Eddie's niece said, translating for his wife.
The family has created a GoFundMe to raise money to support the family as they grieve the loss of their loved one who died trying to save others.
"The whole world needs more Eddies," Borges said.