Lee Dingle died in a freak accident at the beach, in front of his children:

The husband of Raleigh Christian writer and activist Shannon Dingle died Friday after a wave sent him crashing onto the beach, hitting his head, his wife said on social media.

Lee Dingle was in the ocean playing with his children, Shannon Dingle wrote on Twitter and Facebook. WRAL reported the family was on Oak Island.

Lee Dingle is survived by his wife and six children by birth and adoption.

“My partner, my love, and my home died today after a freak accident,” Shannon Dingle wrote. “Lee was playing on the beach with three of our kids yesterday, and an intense wave hit him just right to slam his head into the sand and break his neck.

“Some heroes — including our kids — tried to save him, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they did,” she continued. “His body couldn’t recover from the initial injury.”

According to the Go Fund Me set up by a family friend:

Lee was playing on the beach with three of his kids, and an intense wave hit him just right to slam his head into the sand, break his neck, and make his throat swell so much his brain was deprived of oxygen for too long to recover. Some heroes — including his kids — tried to save him, but it wouldn’t have mattered what they did. His body couldn’t recover from the initial injury.

Shannon Dingle is a survivor of sex trafficking, and is active in the fight against it. Three of their children are siblings from Uganda that they adopted. They also adopted a little Taiwanese girl with cerebral palsy. Now Shannon Dingle will have to raise all six kids alone.

I normally don’t put Go Fund Me appeals on this blog, but in this case, I’m making an exception. I gave the Dingles a little something. Will you please consider doing so too? I don’t know this family, though Shannon Dingle is a friend of my friend Karen Swallow Prior. There are a million tragedies every day, but there’s something about this one that just rips your heart out. To die like that in front of your children, on a family vacation, and leave them all behind — it’s unimaginable, the shock of it. Nothing any of us can do can make up for this loss to that grieving wife and children, but at least we can help take away some of their anxieties about how they’re going to pay the bills.

Here is the link.