Patrick H. Ryan 1935-2009

BAM!  Another door is closed.  Remember John "Jack" Ryan who died of an accidental gunshot wound?  Tim and Peter refer to him as Uncle Jack, so I will follow suit here.  When Jack died, he left a wife Monica and two children, according to his obituary.  I was curious what happened to them so I started researching them.

First of all, I had to find out the names for the children and found them in the 1940 census Monica Ryan and children Patrick and Sheila.  Though I don't have Monica's death fully determined, I did find her son Patrick's obituary.

Handsome guy.  The obituary also contains a valuable clue for his sister Sheila, who apparently married a Morrison.  Sadly, he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease-- a particular insult considering that his childhood was likely difficult after his father's accidental death.  I find it interesting that Patricks are few and far between in our Ryan family. 

On another note, perhaps you've heard that Amy "said Yes to the dress"!  I took a trip to Erie yesterday so that she could show me the dress she'd fallen in love with.  Unfortunately, the shop sample of this dress had been sold so Amy couldn't model it for me.  She had pictures from a previous visit and it is quite beautiful.  But the confirming fact for me was that she loved it so the dress has been ordered.  It was much more emotional than I was expecting.

The emotions were on high alert after we found some evidence in our house that Ron Henry had stopped by for a visit recently.  He had a habit of moving the toilet paper around in the downstairs bathroom, which kind of drove me nuts.  When he died, I thought "Well, at least I won't have to go move the toilet paper back any more."  The night before I went to Erie, the toilet paper roll had been moved to Ron's favorite spot.  We believe it's a message from Ron.  He would have belly laughed himself silly to hear me tell the story of driving out to Erie to find my hung over daughter ready to go to the bridal store to try on a dress that wasn't there.   And then paying for it.  Cue the emotions.