Ryan
I lost a friend this summer, very suddenly. He was a phenomenal man. His name was Ryan.
I first met Ryan was I was around 14 and my dad brought him with us to a Twiddle concert after meeting him months prior and discovering they were from the same small upstate New York town.
It must have been fate! What a small world it is we live in.
Since, Ryan would be at my house when I would get off the school bus, talking to my dad, bonding over the Grateful Dead. He was a Dead Head to his core.
He would play disc golf with my parents. He was a pleasure to be around.
Then, on July 10, 2022 he passed very suddenly. After 6 years of being a dear friend to my family and I he was gone.
I remember coming home from work that afternoon. There was a sense of somber, tears wiped onto our teeshirt sleeves as we shared stories with one another of Ryan.
I can recall driving to his funeral, in a Grateful Dead shirt like most of his other friends were. I shuffled my Grateful Dead playlist, “Black Muddy River” blared through my speakers. Then, “Brokedown Palace” and “Sing Me Back Home” played.
It felt as if he had handpicked the songs for my drive to the funeral home and sing him back home I did.
The Perfect Pendant
In February, my boyfriend got me a Grateful Dead pendant. It had a gorgeous sunflower, steal your face millie within a purple orb and an opal sat at the top of the pendant. I wore it everyday, everywhere. It quickly became my favorite piece of jewelry.
It was remarkably perfect.
When I would look at the pendant I could practically hear how excited Ryan would be, telling me how much he loved it.
This weekend, I lost my dear pendant in a strangers lawn. I searched on my hands and knees for an hour looking for it with no relief. I returned to my dorm empty handed.
As I sat and thought about other jewelry I had lost I thought of the message that once a piece of jewelry leaves you it is because it can no longer serve you. It must serve someone else.
I cannot possibly fathom that the pendant is anywhere else than stepped on and pushed into the soft ground. It now belongs to the earth, to Ryan.
So, I declare my perfect pendant a gift to a dear friend of mine who was taken far too soon.
[…] A Gift To A Dear Friend […]