Ronan Memorial Video
Happy 19th Birthday
I wrote and saved this on your 19th Birthday: "Happy 19th birthday Ronan. You were only six months away from your seventeenth birthday when you left us and yet so much has changed since you were here. Addresses have changed, career paths have changed, vehicles have changed, schools have changed, but the pain of your absence remains the same. There are shelves in the family room with old pictures of you. It looks like a small shrine. Your old red and black Nerf ammo balls (the ones that used to irritate mom) seemingly appear out of nowhere. In a house you never set foot in. Still your presence is here. Just the other night at dinner Caleb started telling a story with, “When Ronan was alive…” This simultaneously caused me to smile and fight back tears. I fear your younger siblings forgetting you and it brought great joy and pain to hear Caleb speak of you, even if it is in the past tense. But today is your birthday. I celebrated 16 of them with you. So many great memories of each one, but none of them more memorable to me than going alone to Buffalo Wild Wings for your 16th . Just me and you. I wonder how tall you would be now? Would you still look up to me or would you have surpassed me like Kegan has? So many questions that will never have answers. Today we will remember the day you were born – June 15, 2002. Remember not celebrate. There will be no cake & ice cream, balloons, family, and friends as you would’ve liked. Instead we will travel quietly to the cemetery where we will stand in silence. I know you’re not there but you are. We will leave as quietly as we arrived, but until the day I die part of me will remain buried where we placed your earthly body to rest. Please know you are missed by family and friends that love you. I will never stop thinking of you. Every morning and every night you are loved. Happy Birthday Son.