Ryan is our only child. We love him dearly. He was our life. Happy-go-lucky, everyone’s friend. As one friend said at his funeral ‘gave everything, asked for nothing’. That really summed him up.
Ryan and Nicola (Ryan’s fiancée) had a little boy, Harley, 2 ½ years ago. We were over the moon. Our life was complete. What joy – we would see them two or three times in the week and every Sunday for lunch. Every holiday was spent with us in our house in Spain.
We had all been to Spain in June for a family holiday, but in August Ryan wanted to go and visit his friend in Thailand. Chris lived in Bangkok. We all thought it was not fair to take Harley out to Bangkok because of the long flight and its very humid out there.
Ryan decided to go on his own. John used to phone him every day and Ryan would phone Nic and Harley every day. John and Nic both spoke to Ryan on Saturday 2nd September. We were not to know this would be the last time.
When Nic came around to us for lunch on Sunday she told John she had been trying to contact Ryan but could not get through. John had also been trying. He continued to try all day and thought he must have gone out, maybe on a boat trip.
On the Monday morning we went to work, as usual.
As soon as John got to work he tried Ryan but still no answer. Nic phoned John and said she had been trying again all morning, so she had phoned Chris, Ryan’s friend. Chris was not in. His nephew, he was staying with Chris at the time, had answered and Nic felt he was being evasive. John then phoned Chris and the nephew said he had just come back in. When John spoke to Chris he asked if he had seen Ryan as he could not get hold of him. Chris said: ‘have you not heard from anyone?’ John said: ‘no’. Chris then said: ‘I have some bad news.’ John knew what he was going to say.
Ryan had an acute heart attack and had died in bed on Sunday 3rd September, 27 years old, fit and well. We still cannot believe what has happened. I don’t know how we flew out to Bangkok the next day to identify our boy and bring him home. We were there for five days and our hotel was just five minutes away from where Ryan was staying. The sad thing is we will not get a full report for three to four months. All we know is Ryan died of a heart attack. The Coroners Report said ‘Death Unascertained.’ We still have to wait. But after contacting CRY our minds have put at rest some of the questions we needed answers to.
We miss our boy so much. How can someone go on holiday and not come back, not at 27. We still think he is coming home.
Barbara and John Darby
