A 19-year-old from Michigan who was vacationing in the Bahamas was killed when a gigantic wave swept him away as he was hiking. The tragedy came shortly after he asked his girlfriend’s family for permission to marry her. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow met his girlfriend, Athena Williams, at a summer party just after they finished the eighth grade. The two bonded the next year as they sat next to each other on the school bus after Brussow moved down the street from Williams. It was during those rides that their relationship blossomed. 
 
 “The minute he walked down to the bus, I just knew. I was so excited that Jonathan Brussow was on my bus,” Williams, 20, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, tells PEOPLE. “He later told me that he saw me, and he had butterflies in his stomach and didn’t know how he could talk to me without throwing up!” 
 
 As the couple readied to start their lives as young adults, Brussow felt the time was right to ask for his longtime girlfriend’s hand in marriage. But first, the young man wanted to ask Williams’ family for permission. While the couple was on vacation on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas with Williams’ family, Brussow did just that, as he secretly sat them down for a talk when Williams wasn’t around. Saying yes to him, Williams says, was always a given. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams 
 
 “Me and Jonathan, we knew we were going to get married. We knew we were still young, but—it sounds so cheesy—but we’ve just been so much in love. We didn’t spend a minute apart from each other unless we had to,” she says of Brussow, who was an adventurous “country boy” who loved dirt biking and hunting. “We were creating such a beautiful life together. I knew he wanted to propose to me but I didn’t know he was asking my parents.” 
 
 Just before dawn on March 5, Brussow woke Williams up and told her he was “going to be right back,” and left with Williams’ brother, Eric, for a hike up a nearby cliff to talk with him about the upcoming proposal. But as the hours passed with no sign of Brussow and her brother, Williams began to worry. 
 
 “The sun was coming up and I was looking out my window trying to look for him, waiting for him to come back and come lay down or something,” she recalls. “He didn’t come back.” 
 
 As the two men sat at the highest point of the cliff—which Williams says was at least 70 feet high—a freak wave came up and swept the two of them into the water below, leaving them to fight for their survival. Though Eric was badly injured, he managed to pull himself from the water by grabbing on to a rock. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow GoFundMe 
 
 With Brussow unable to return to shore, Eric ran for help. After borrowing a phone from a local woman, he messaged his sister and told her he was at a hospital. It wouldn’t be until a short time later that Williams found out Brussow wasn’t with him. 
 
 “After finding out that Eric was up on the cliffs, I couldn’t help but to scream and I instantly thought the worst,” she says. “That’s when we started calling everybody, we called every number possible.” 
 
 In the coming hours, Brussow’s father flew to the island as Williams and her family called the U.S. Embassy, Coast Guard, Ministry of Tourism and anyone else that could assist in the search. With time ticking and a storm adding difficulties to their efforts, local Bahamians rallied together, bringing the family water and food and never wanting money in return. They spent many hours searching with them, something which Williams says she will be forever grateful. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams 
 
 “We never stopped searching, we had so much hope,” she says. “If there was one person who could get out of this situation, it’s Jonathan Brussow, and anyone would tell you that.” 
 
 On March 9—four days after the incident—a search party recovered Brussow’s body, hundreds of yards from where the giant wave hit. 
 
 “It’s been a very tragic experience, but I’ve come to the conclusion that since this had to happen to us, I’m glad that it happened on this island,” Williams, who is still on the island but is returning to the states on Wednesday, says. “We wouldn’t have been able to come to peace with this situation to understand it, to get through it, without the people here. I couldn’t be more thankful.” 
 
 Athena Williams 
 
 Though the family initially set up a GoFundMe to raise award money for anyone who found Brussow alive, they have now shifted the donation page’s mission. Now they hope to help cover the expenses for Brussow’s family to transport him back to Michigan and reimburse those who spent money to help in the search. 
 
 They’d also like to use the donations to purchase warning signs and safety gear that will be available near the island’s Glass Window Bridge—where the wave hit. This part of the initiative is being spearheaded by Eric in the hopes if someone is in need of help, equipment will be readily available. The island’s hospital is also in need of a mammogram machine, and this, too, is something they hope to provide. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow and Athena Williams Athena Williams 
 
 Helping out the locals in a meaningful and lasting way will be a great way to honor the love of her life, Williams says. 
 
 “I would give anything to be able to have him here and be able to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. It would have been beautiful, it would have been a beautiful life we would have made together,” she says. “We have been such great friends over the last six years together. I wish we had more time.” ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video 
 
 HARBOUR ISLAND, Bahamas-- After a young Rockford man's body was found in the Bahamas, his girlfriend is encouraging the community to celebrate his life and sharing his last words with FOX 17. 
 
 Athena Williams, 20, met Jonathan Brussow, 19, at a bonfire during the summer after the two finished eighth grade. When ninth grade started, they rode the same school bus. Williams says one morning, Brussow sat in the seat next to her and from there, it was young love. 
 
 Brussow had been with Williams and her family on vacation to the Bahamas. Williams says the night before Brussow went missing, he sat down with her family after she went to bed to ask them a question that would change their lives. 
 
 He wanted their permission to marry her. 
 
 “When we started dating he always told me, he said, ‘Since the first time I saw you, I knew I was gonna marry you,'" Williams tells FOX 17. “We had everything planned out already. He had our whole wedding planned out, too and we weren’t even engaged or anything.” 
 
 Before the sun rose that next morning, Brussow went with Williams' brother, Erik on a hike up a tall cliff nearby. 
 
 “When they were there, Jonathan also asked Erik if it was okay if he could marry me," Williams says. "I know that and the one thing Erik did tell me that Jonathan said was, ‘Come have a seat with me, buddy,' and then it just kind of happened, I guess.” 
 
 A huge wave swept the two young men into the water. Erik was able to grab onto a rock and get himself to shore. He had broken ribs and was cut badly but still, he ran a mile to get help for Jonathan before being taken to the hospital. 
 
 At 11 a.m., Williams got a message that Brussow wasn't with Erik. 
 
 “That’s pretty much when we knew that Jonathan was gone but we did not give up hope," Williams says. "We called every number possible. We called the embassy, the Nassau Coast Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, the local police enforcement. We did not stop making calls.” 
 
 Brussow's parents immediately flew to the island. Williams tells FOX 17 that with help from locals, they searched for Brussow for days. She credits the Bahamians for their ability to continue the search. 
 
 There was a tropical storm that hit the island, making their search difficult. Still, she persisted. 
 
 “It’s Jonathan. Jonathan Brussow. If there’s anybody who could get out of a situation like this, it’s Jonathan," Williams says. “But the odds were absolutely against him. There was just no way he could have made it.” 
 
 Days later, Brussow's body was found. Though her boyfriend is gone, Williams says his memory will live on. 
 
 “He absolutely loved his life. He had no regrets. He had no complaints," Williams says. “I’ve never, ever experienced or seen anybody love somebody so genuinely like he actually loved me. It just blows me away, the person he was. The person he still is.” 
 
 She says her family is now focusing on returning the help that was given to them by local Bahamians. The Williams and Brussow families are raising money to install a safety device on the Glass Window Bridge, near where Brussow entered the water. Williams says this effort is especially important to Erik. 
 
 Williams says they also hope to help the local hospital get new equipment, like a much needed mammogram machine. 
 
 If you'd like to contribute to the families' GoFundMe page, click here. ||||| ROCKFORD, MI -- The family of a missing 19-year-old man washed into the sea Monday says his body has been recovered in the Bahamas. 
 
 Family members were holding out hope as late as Friday morning that Jonathan Brussow, a 2016 Rockford High School graduate, would somehow be found alive. 
 
 But on Saturday, March 10, Brussow's father confirmed that his son's remains had been recovered from atop a cliff where surging waves created an eight-foot deep pond during a storm earlier this week. 
 
 Brad Brussow said that local authorities and his own search party had been through that same area several times since his son went missing Monday, March 5 near the Glass Window Bridge. They did not find anything. 
 
 The pond began to dry up later in the week and the body was discovered Friday, March 9 in the depression area, Brad Brussow said. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow was on vacation in the Bahamas, on the island of Eleuthera, when he and a friend were both knocked off their feet by a rogue wave while near the bridge. 
 
 Father of Rockford man missing in Bahamas still hopeful, funding effort started 
 
 Brussow was swept into the sea and the other person managed to cling to a rock and pull himself to safety. 
 
 Brad Brussow, who flew to the Bahamas to help search, said it's believed his son was washed ashore not long after he went into the sea. The sea surge crashing into the cliff may have been nearly 100 feet tall, he said. 
 
 Jonathan Brussow's family released a statement on Saturday. 
 
 In the statement, they made an analogy between a straight-line wind storm that happened on the day of Jonathan Brussow's birth on May 31, 1998 and the March 5 storm in Eleuthera that swept him into the sea. 
 
 "God brought Jonathan in with a storm and took him back in a storm," according to the statement. 
 
 When he was born, he was dubbed "storm trooper" in an article in the Rockford Squire about the straight-line wind storm and the family's adventure getting to the hospital through debris. 
 
 "As a family, he was known as Jonathan "Stormy" Brussow," the family's statement said. "He named his dog Stormy. For those that knew him, they knew he lived his life with a storm of passion and a smile that would light up a room." 
 
 Family members also offered thanks to everyone who gave prayers and support since Monday. ||||| Last week, on a sunny day with a storm in the forecast, six families boarded Stretch Duck 07 in Branson. 
 
 Every family lost someone when the boat sank into Table Rock Lake, killing more than half of the 31 passengers. 
 
 Every family, that is, but one. 
 
 All the members of a family of nine survived — an outcome that defies probability to the point of qualifying as unbelievable, said Mandi Keller of Texas, a member of the family who wasn’t on the boat. 
 
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 “It is a miracle. A complete miracle,” she said by phone. 
 
 Keller is 15-year-old Gillian Collins’ mother. 
 
 “My daughter, her dad and the rest of the family are all surviving miracles.” 
 
 The unlikely survival of the entire family astonished a first responder there that night. 
 
 “To me, that’s really the most remarkable piece to all of this,” said Steve Martin, a chaplain with the Missouri Highway Patrol and Nixa Fire Department. “It’s the untold story.” 
 
 Martin was at Branson City Hall to receive the family Thursday night after they were shuttled there, together, unbroken. 
 
 “They themselves have no explanation,” he said. “They’re dumbfounded (as to) how they all made it out.” 
 
 The family is also grappling with survivor’s guilt, Martin told The Star Sunday inside Williams Memorial Chapel on the College of the Ozarks campus. 
 
 He spoke to dozens gathered inside the church to pay their respects after the horror on the lake. 
 
 Tucked away into his prayer, easy to miss, were words he spoke directly to the family. 
 
 “Lord, for those who have lost such important parts of their family, we pray for healing and peace that can only come by your power,” he said. 
 
 “And for others who have survived who are dealing with the traumatic stress of being separated and the guilt of surviving, I pray that you protect them as well, that you give them strength to find their way.” 
 
 Tia Coleman provided the family of nine a sense of absolution at the service, Martin said. 
 
 Coleman, the woman who lost nine of her relatives, including her husband and three children, told members of the family in attendance to let go of their guilt. 
 
 “I’m thankful that all of your family survived,” she told them, Martin said. “God has a purpose for you.” 
 
 “She is filled with joy,” Martin said of Coleman. “It makes her smile, the thought that they all will be able to go home together where her family cannot go home together. 
 
 “That was the power of bringing them together like this.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Tia Coleman lost nine members of her family after a Branson duck boat sank in heavy swells as a storm moved across Table Rock Lake near Branson, Mo. 
 
 The members of the family remaining whole, according to a Missouri Highway Patrol report, are 15-year-old Gillian and her father and stepmother, Shayne and Tiffany Collins; and the rest of their family: Cayden, Chloe and Tomlin McDonald; Tayden Kimbley; Talyssa Mann; and Ronita McKinley. 
 
 Only one, McKinley, 64, was injured. She was in serious condition after coming out of the water but has since been discharged from the hospital, Martin said. 
 
 Keller believes her family “will always feel guilty.” 
 
 But they shouldn’t, Martin said. 
 
 He said the family was traumatized that night after they all narrowly escaped death. 
 
 He knows of no good explanation for how or why the family survived. 
 
 “They didn’t survive because they stuck together or planned how to navigate,” Martin said. 
 
 The youngest member of the family, a 10-year-old, told Martin he felt the waves pushing him toward the Showboat Branson Belle, a large riverboat nearby. 
 
 “The Branson Belle — it was good for some and not as good for others,” Martin said. 
 
 The family of nine found safety by climbing up a paddle on the rear of the Belle, or clinging to the side of the riverboat until bystanders came to hoist them to safety. 
 
 “The only thing I can say with consistency is that they all ended up in different places and found safety in different ways,” Martin said. 
 
 “There was incredible trauma: not knowing where your family (members) are, seeing your children trying to swim and not being able to help them as much as you would like and of course the chaos going on around them as people are (drowning). 
 
 “There was no rhyme or reason to why, why all nine of them lived and every other family unit lost people.” 
 
 SHARE COPY LINK Originally a World War II vehicle, duck boats have had a troubled history when companies started using them for lake tours. 
 
 The five other families on the boat all lost people. The boat went down with a two-member crew, and only one duck boat employee came out of the water alive. 
 
 William Asher and Rosemarie Hamann were a loving couple who enjoyed music and dancing. They lived in the St. Louis suburb of Affton. They both died. 
 
 William Asher and Rose Hamann were known as the life of the party and lovers of old music. Gene Ackmann 
 
 Another couple, Janice and William Bright, also died. Their deaths caused William Bright’s sister, Karen Abbott, to “fall apart.” 
 
 William and Janice Bright Courtesy of the family 
 
 The Colemans, all 11 of them, were a tight-knit family who, when they went on vacations together, often picked places with water and enjoyed swimming and unwinding in hot tubs. 
 
 Nine of them died. Two survived, including Tia Coleman. 
 
 Duck boat survivor Tia Coleman is comforted by family after answering questions on Saturday, July 21, about her escape from the sinking boat and the loss of nine family members on Table Rock Lake, in Branson, Mo. John Sleezer jsleezer@kcstar.com 
 
 Alicia Dennison, 12, was on a special trip with her grandmother, Leslie Dennison, who sacrificed herself to save her granddaughter by giving her a push toward the surface before sinking into deeper water. 
 
 Alicia Dennison, 12, survived the duck boat horror on Table Rock Lake in Branson. “I thought we were all going to sink and die,” she said. Courtesy of the family 
 
 Loren Smith, 14, was with her family: Steve Smith, 53, and Lance, 15. When Loren emerged from the water, she’d learn she came back to a world without a father or brother. 
 
 Mourners gather in the parking lot of the Ride the Ducks offices in Branson, Missouri, during Friday's July 20, 2018, candlelight vigil for the victims of the Branson duck boat tragedy at Table Rock Lake. John Sleezer jsleezer@kcstar.com 
 
 Bob Williams, a crew member, died. Kenneth McKee, who operated the boat, survived. 
 
 Bob Williams’ family in Rhode Island, where he’d lived before retiring to Branson, remembered him as a deeply religious man who founded a local church. Mourners paid tribute to him at his funeral July 24, 2018 in Branson. Twitter 
 
 The mayor of Branson, Karen Best, was wearing a large heart-shaped pendant as she spoke to those assembled inside the College of the Ozarks chapel. 
 
 It will always remind her of the 17 who died who “changed my heart forever.” 
 
 “I’m also reminded of the 14 (surviving) individuals whose hearts were broken. 
 
 “To those families on the duck, please know you will always, always, always be a part of our family, and you will always remain in our heart.”
– "God brought Jonathan in with a storm and took him back in a storm." That's how the family of 19-year-old Jonathan Brussow describe his death earlier this month in the Bahamas, just after he'd asked the family of his girlfriend for permission to marry her. Athena Williams tells People and FOX 17 that the Michigan man she met at a party in middle school was vacationing on the island of Eleuthera with her and her family when, on March 4, he secretly asked her family if he could marry her. Early the next day, Brussow and Williams' brother went for a hike, and as they were resting on a cliff, a wave came out of nowhere and swept the two men into the water below. Williams' brother was badly hurt but managed to get to shore, where he ran for help. Brussow, however, was nowhere to be found, and his family flew out from the US to help Williams, her family, and the locals search for him. On March 9, an 8-foot-deep depression filled with water near where the men were swept away dried up, and Brussow's body was found, MLive.com reports. The $21,000 raised on GoFundMe to help in the search for Brussow—described as the "most beloved kid" on his high school swim team before he graduated in 2016, per WZZM—will now be put toward bringing his body home, offering funds to those who helped look for him, and putting warning signs and safety gear near where the wave took his life. In a statement, his family notes how Brussow had been born in a wild storm on May 31, 1998, and that "those that knew him well knew he lived his life with a storm of passion." As for Williams, she tells People: "I would give anything to be able to have him here and be able to marry him and spend the rest of my life with him. … I wish we had more time." (A rogue wave killed twin sisters in Cabo.)