His Life Was Extraordinary.
So Was the Love That Followed.
Before there was tragedy, there was Ryan.
A son. A brother. A friend. A protector. A young man with a life ahead of him.
On November 7, 2009, everything changed.
But one thing never did.
Our love for him.
Before Everything Changed, There Was Ryan.
Ryan was the kind of young man people naturally gravitated toward. Confident, strong, and well-liked, he had every opportunity to follow the crowd. Yet, what made him special wasn’t his popularity. It was how he treated people. Even when others weren’t kind, Ryan chose compassion. He had the confidence to stand up for himself — and the character to stand up for others.
Ryan had a way of drawing people in, especially his mom. He was engaging with people of all ages — children to the elderly. He was determined in everything he set his mind to. His humor would light up a room, and his personality made people want to be around him. He knew how to make people laugh, but he also knew when to stand with someone who needed a friend. This combination of humor, confidence, and compassion was what made Ryan so special.
The Day Everything Changed
The phone rang in the middle of the night.
It was Ryan’s cell phone.
Sue answered, expecting to hear our son’s voice.
But it wasn’t Ryan.
It was someone calling from the intensive care unit.
Ryan had been found unresponsive after a brutal assault in Morgantown, West Virginia, on November 7, 2009. His injuries were devastating. Sue was told we needed to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.
Our son was on the brink of death.
Nothing prepares a parent for those words.
When Sue and I arrived at the hospital and saw Ryan, we understood just how close we were to losing him.
We called our daughter, Kari, and told her to get there as quickly as she could. We were afraid she might not have another chance to say goodbye to her brother.
Last rites were administered.
As parents, we had spent our lives trying to protect our children. Suddenly, we were standing beside our son, unable to protect him from the very thing we feared most.
Ryan barely survived that night.
But he remained in a coma from which he would never emerge.
We couldn’t have known it then, but our lives had changed forever. We were about to learn things about love, sacrifice, endurance, and the goodness of other people that we never imagined we would need to know.
What We Learned About Love
We never imagined the life that awaited us.
Before Ryan’s assault, we thought we understood what it meant to love someone unconditionally. We were parents, after all. Loving our children was as natural as breathing.
But Ryan would teach us that love is so much more than a feeling.
Love is showing up. Every day. Even when you’re exhausted. Even when you’re frightened. Even when the future offers no promises.
It’s finding a reason to smile when your heart is breaking. It’s celebrating the smallest victories that other people might never notice. It’s discovering strength you never knew you possessed, simply because someone you love needs you.
And perhaps most unexpectedly, we learned that love doesn’t have to come from family.
Sometimes it arrives at your front door. Sometimes it brings a meal, offers a helping hand, or simply sits beside you when there are no words worth saying.
People came into our lives who owed us nothing. Yet they gave us something we could never repay: their time, their compassion, and the reassurance that we were not facing this alone.
We learned that while tragedy can reveal the worst in humanity, it can also introduce you to the very best.
We Never Walked Alone
There is something extraordinary about people who choose to share another family’s burden.
They didn’t have to come. They didn’t have to give their time, their energy, or their hearts. They had families of their own, responsibilities of their own, and struggles we might never have known about.
But they came anyway.
Some helped care for Ryan. Some brought meals, offered encouragement, or took on responsibilities that allowed us to keep going. Others simply reminded us, through their presence, that we mattered.
And they kept coming.
Over the years, these people became far more than supporters. They became part of our family and part of Ryan’s story.
They taught us something we will carry for the rest of our lives: surround yourself with people of exceptional character, because when life becomes unimaginably difficult, those are the people who will stand beside you.
To everyone who walked this journey with us—and to those who entered our lives afterward and embraced our family with the same generosity—please know this:
You are cherished. You are admired. And you will always have a place in our hearts.
Ryan’s Story Continues Here.
Ryan’s story is about far more than what happened to him. It’s about the life he lived, the people he touched, and the extraordinary love that surrounded him. We invite you to get to know our son, explore the years we shared with him, and discover the community that became part of our family.