Ryan Hickey

Last week a person went missing whom I have known since I was a child.  I haven't spoken to him or seen him in years, but all the same, I was concerned.  Today I found out that his body was discovered trapped in a car in a river, along with another man I didn't know.  This happened in Ohio, where I am from, and I won't be able to go to a funeral or memorial service for him.  So instead, I am writing this blog.  I write as a memorial, and I write because I fear if I don't, this news will pass me by too easily. 

So here's to Ryan Hickey.  That was his name.

He was one of my earliest friends.  I knew him from church.  I used to go over to his house to play with him and his brother Chris all the time.  I even spent the night (relax, I was only three or four years old).  I remember his mom reading to us at bedtime and falling asleep.  They had a tree fort in their backyard that we would always climb, and we would go for walks in the woods behind their house.  At church, Ryan and I would draw pictures of houses and trees and give them to each other over the pew.  Sometimes we would write "I love you" in the tree.  When I was old enough to go to kindergarten, we went to the same school and my mom would carpool all of us.  Ryan and I would talk about getting married and living in a tree.  My mom has told me that when I would ask him where we would get something like a microwave or a couch, he would say, "Oh, my mom has that, we'll get it from her."  I always have to laugh at that.  These may seem like strange memories to share, but they are all I have.  As we grew older, we didn't remain close friends, and I eventually moved away.  I really don't have many more meaningful memories of him than that.  I don't know what kind of man he became.  I only knew the little boy.

My heart goes out to his mom and dad, knowing that their anguish must be great.  To lose a son...I cannot imagine.  I am so sorry, for all his family, and friends.  I think it would be easy for someone like me, who isn't there and hasn't seen him in so long, to just go on with life.  But a person has gone out of this world, and it seemed important to take a moment and remember him.  It seemed important to feel the loss.