Zakary Ingraham didn't want to believe his father, a fisherman in Hawaii, was dead when the Coast Guard announced that it was suspending the search for his father, Ron Ingraham. Ron had been missing since Thanksgiving, when he put out his last call for help saying his boat was going to sink nearly 50 miles off the coast of the Big Island, SF Gate reported on Thursday.
"I thought, well at least dad died doing what he loved," the son said. "I was trying to emotionally quell myself. But at the same time, I kind of had that feeling he wasn't gone yet."
Ron Ingraham was found on Tuesday, dehydrated and hungry, but uninjured --12 days after he was lost at sea. He was returned to his home on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, where he lives on the boat that was pulled to shore.
It's unclear what went wrong with boat or how long he was out to sea for.
Zakary Ingraham, 43, was contacted by the Coast Guard in Missouri on Thanksgiving when they got his father's mayday calls, Yahoo News reported.
"It's tough to put into words," Ingraham said as his father was en route to Molokai. "You're crushed, and you don't know what to do."
To add to his distress while his father was missing, Zakary Ingraham started to regret years of lost contact and that his 8-year-old son had never met his grandfather.
As a full time student, Zakary Ingraham is trying to save up for a loan so he can pay to go visit his father in Hawaii.
"When I see my dad, I'm going to give him a big hug," he said.
