BROCKTON, Mass. — Hundreds came out to a vigil for the families of Rafael Andrade, 13, and Tiago Depina, 12. The two cousins who could not swim drowned in Waldo Lake Saturday night while skipping rocks.
After the first boy fell in, the second drowned trying to save him. Then, a good Samaritan, Valdo Centeio, tried saving them both.
“I can’t sleep, I’m traumatized,” Centeio said. “Not a night goes by I don’t think of them.”
At the vigil, Centeio met the family of the boys he tried to save, and boy were they thankful as they grabbed him in a warm embrace.
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Centeio admitted he desperately needed the hugs, but he would get more than that; he got a couple of hundred people calling him a hero.
“I tried, I tried,” he cried to the family. “I blame myself.”
The crowds immediately shouted, “You’re a hero,” to which he responded, “I’m not a hero, I couldn’t save them.”
That’s when he got even more hugs and applause from the crowds who doubled down on the hero chants. During the hour-long vigil, you could just hear the wails and cries of the family. But through their tears, they at least know they have the entire city behind them.
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