Dalton Cottrell was only 22 and had been married just three days.
Dalton Cottrell was only 22 and had just been married for three days when he drowned on his honeymoon in Florida.
His bride took to Facebook to announce his passing and to express her grief.
"Yesterday afternoon while at the beach the Lord decided to call my husband Dalton to come home to him," Cheyenne Hedrick, also 22, wrote on her page.
The couple was married on Saturday in Kansas City, Missouri. They traveled to St. Augustine for their honeymoon.
They were swimming at Crescent Beach on Tuesday when Cottrell was pulled deeper into the water by a strong current, authorities said. Hedrick tried to help, but was unable to because he was struggling and pulling her under the water, police said.
A lifeguard and others pulled Cottrell from the waves and administered CPR, but it was too late. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
"There is much fear and uncertainty coursing through myself," his wife, and now widow, wrote in her post. Three "days of wedded bliss turned into a nightmare very quickly."
Cottrell was studying to become a pastor at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary in Iowa. Hedrick also studied there.
The school, in a statement, asked for prayers "as we work through the difficult days ahead."
A GoFundMe page has been established to help with funeral costs.
"Cheyenne is left in the position of now paying for a funeral 3 days after paying for a wedding," a statement on the site says. "Our hearts are so broken for Cheyenne and all family members involved."
Hedrick is being helped by her family as she struggles with funeral arrangements, she said in her post.
"My parents came down early this morning to be with me as I begin the next journey," she wrote. "Never did I think at 22 I would be a wife and then a widow so quickly."
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