It was this very week, one year ago, that Ryan had his first bone marrow biopsy, found out the exact type of cancer he had, was told he had less than a 50% chance to live and that he would start chemo within days. It was a LOT to take in all at once, but Ryan had no hesitation. He knew what he was going to be fighting for... his family, his life and everything that he loved.
He fought, and he fought HARD. He fought until there was nothing more that modern medicine could do to help him.
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He began this journey surrounded by family and love, and he ended this journey surrounded by family and love.
The journey of living, laughing, putting complete trust and faith in God, and making the MOST out of life with those he LOVED the most...
his family.
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And so, I begin the final chapters of Ryan's journey...
The day we found out that there was NOTHING more that could be done medically to help Ryan, was the day that we told the kids that Daddy was going to die.
That night, we kept Hallie up and talked JUST to her. It was hard, for all of us. We tried to make the conversation as joyous and peaceful as possible and in doing so, Ryan explained several things. He told her that he would ALWAYS be with us, that he would be FREE from all pain and sickness, and most importantly, that he was going to return Home to Heavenly Father and Jesus.
Ryan then asked Hallie if she had any special things she wanted to do with him and she said, "I want you to come to my book fair and make cookies with me."
The next morning, he headed off to the book fair with his little girl:
While in the book fair, Hallie's teacher (Mrs. Nelson) just happened to walk in and said that the class had just finished planting a tree for Earth Day in Ryan's honor...
The Ryan Hess Memorial Tree
It is so neat that Hallie will be able to see this tree EVERY day at school. Another reminder for her of her Dad and the LOVE that so many people have for him and our family.
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I skipped out in mentioning a while back that Ryan had created a bucket list. A couple of the things on that list were:
1) Buy and restore a (1968-1972) Chevy Truck
2) Take Margie to Hawaii or some other tropical place
Well, around his birthday, he found a 1970 Chevy Truck. He went and looked at it and really, it was LOVE at first sight! He wanted it and wanted it bad. He gave me EVERY reason why to get it, and I think I gave him every reason why we shouldn't get a third (clunker of a) car. Then he says, "Margie, it was one of the things on my bucket list... I've ALWAYS wanted a truck around this year. I found it! It's in GREAT condition and it has a SWEET motor- You will LOVE it!"
How could I say "NO" to that?!? He had found his DREAM car!!!
We all began to love his truck. And Yes, I do love the motor- it does sound pretty dang sweet!!!
The kids LOVED going for rides with Dad in the truck and Ryan LOVED revving his engine in the garage and around town.
He really only got to enjoy his truck for about 3 weeks before his cancer came back. When he was in the hospital, he would ask if we were starting the truck up for him. Upon each arrival home, it was one of the FIRST things he would do. Sometimes he was too sick to drive it around, but he would at least start it up, just to hear that "SWEET motor..."
He wanted to take it to Hallie's book fair, so here are my two FAVORITE boys:
♥ them!
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By that weekend, all our family was out and we were ALL able to enjoy the kids playing soccer.
This was a picture of Max after he scored his FIRST goal! He took it down and scored into his OWN team's goal. Just look at that happy face...he was SO proud and we were too.
I think of everything that happened at the soccer games, this next picture meant the MOST to me. Ryan was really weak during his final weeks and he had to use a wheelchair a good majority of the time. Getting up and moving around required a lot of work and effort.
I don't think the kids realized how neat it was for Ryan to get up to do this...
but it is something I won't EVER forget.
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We are a forever family...
Forever TEAM RYAN HESS
(more posts coming soon)
