Family Copes in Aftermath of Tragic Drownings at Lake Nasworthy

SAN ANGELO, TX - That Friday afternoon was like many others for Ronda Strain and her family. Sister Heather was working a shift at a downtown retailer, and father Ronald “Ronnie” Strain and son Braxton were visiting Ronda at work before an afternoon of fishing at the lake. She did not know then that those were the last sweet moments the three would share, or that by dinner that evening, her world would be forever altered.

Related: As the story of the tragic drowning happened at Lake Nasworthy.

Visiting with Ronda on a comfortable November evening, she was full of frustrated tears, and happy and sad ones, as she shared a few details about her two “favorite people” who were laid to rest last week.

Ronda is a San Angelo native, having grown up in Wall, where she lived with her father until 2005 when the family home was lost in a fire, forcing them to relocate to San Angelo. She left Angelo for a time and returned with her son Braxton two years ago.

Shortly after Ronda and Braxton moved to San Angelo, Ronald was diagnosed with diabetes and navigating health challenges. Ronald and Braxton became an inseparable pair while Heather and Ronda worked to make sure “the boys” were taken care of.  The Strain family pulled together to tend to one another and make a home.

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Above: Ronda Strain’s father Ronald “Ronnie” Strain and her son Braxton visited Ronda at work before an afternoon of fishing at Lake Nasworthy. (Contributed photo/Ashley Young-Turner)

Ronda smiled when reflecting on her father, a “perfect Texas dad” who taught her to lasso, to race, and to change her own oil. A self-described “Daddy’s Girl,” Ronda is proud to have had her son get to spend time learning from the man who had taught her everything. Ronald, Braxton, and Ronda shared a love of fishing and spent many hours together on the banks of the lake and river over a fishing line.  

Braxton was a “wholesome, well mannered” little boy who wanted to know everything there was to know about sharks.

“He could tell you everything on earth ever about any shark that ever existed,” Ronda said.

A loving boy, “The beautifulness that filled him, that made him who he was, you couldn’t look at him and not feel it,” she continued.

On October 21, Ronda said goodbye to her 4-year-old son and 61-year-old father for the last time. By that evening, she had lost them both to the mossy water of a Nasworthy reservoir where they had been throwing a cast net for bait.

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Above: November 1 would have been Braxton’s 5th birthday, seen here with his mother, Ronda Strain. (Contributed photo/Ashley Young-Turner)

“They fished for a living,” Ronda said. “[But] My dad couldn’t swim.”

Over the last weeks, Ronda hasn’t been able to return to the house that she and her family had forged. She had relied on her father to guide her through life’s complicated twists and turns.

November 1 would have been Braxton’s 5th birthday, and his mother, aunt and close friends celebrated the little boy who was “a heart stopper,” in his absence.

Already back to work and still trying to understand what these new realities mean, I asked her what she and her family need.

“Love,” she said.

We’d like to show her that very thing.

Sunday, November 6, The Concho Pearl Icehouse, located at 1605 S. Chadbourne, will be hosting a benefit for Ronda Strain, who lost her father and son on Lake Nasworthy at the end of October.

There will be a live auction at 3 p.m., local music all afternoon, face painting, raffles and drawings, and food and drinks for purchase.