On stage, behind his youngest son’s open casket, Ted Pancoast played the guitar and led a soulful chorus that flooded the sanctuary of Colville’s First Baptist Church .

Every one of the room’s 600 seats was claimed Sunday by family members, friends, Irish dancers and musicians who knew Lucas Pancoast, 18, but none were used during the song. Everyone stood, some with their hands in the air, letting the music subtly move their bodies as they sang along.

Lucas drowned in the Kettle River on July 20. The Pancoasts were at their annual family gathering when Lucas and his older brother David, 27, went under water.

Skylar Stover-Bonnalie, an ex-lifeguard, was one of multiple family members who dove in to save Lucas and David. Having just married into the family, it was his first time meeting t

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