61 years taken 10 years at a time

June 4, 1959 is when the party started in a hospital in Lincoln, IL.  I was born to Helen and Robert “Dewey” Ryan and the rest is history.  Let’s look at what went on in every year in my life starting in 1960.

1960:  I had a pretty hectic first year.  I was born with a hernia and had it repaired twice in that initial year.  I don’t remember much else from that time, of course

1970:  I turned 11 this year and the high point of that summer, like every summer, was baseball.  I played my second year of little league baseball and it was the first year I had the opportunity to become a catcher.  That was something I never strayed from for most of my uneventful baseball career.

1980:  This was a pivotal summer because it was the summer I first dated Gena Lovett, now known as Gena Ryan, my wife.  I spent the summer in Murray, KY working on the grounds crew for the university and then umpiring little league baseball most evenings.  One thing I learned that summer is to not invite two girls on a date the same evening nor should you invite two girls to meet you at the ballpark.  Many of the parents got a real kick out of seeing me squirm with two girls sitting next to one another behind home plate.

1990:  This was a comeback year.  1989 climaxed with the discovery that I had thyroid cancer.  This moved up our family timetable and we were fortunate to welcome our younger son, Matthew, into this world in July 1990.  Daniel was born in 1988, so our household doubled in size between 1988 and 1990,  The best was yet to come.

2000:  Life with teenagers was just starting to kick in.  This was also the beginning of most of our memorable Scouting work and this involved multiple camping trips.  Both boys adapted well to Scouting and the impact has been life-long for all of us.

2010:  The first streams of positive light appeared in the business world as I started my own firm in November of this year.  Daniel graduated from Vanderbilt in May 2010 and Matthew completed his sophomore year at Auburn and savored both an Iron Bowl win and a National Championship.  We survived the great recession and were looking forward to many positive things in the future.

2020:  Here we are today in the midst of a pandemic.  Grandson #1, Teddy, arrived last fall and he is the next highlight in our lives.  Matthew & Lauren moved back to Nashville in February and we have the whole family here with us in the Middle Tennessee area.  There were many losses in the past year with the key ones being Gena’s mom, Sue, and my dad’s youngest sister, Evelyn Fitzpatrick.  It seems that death becomes more prevalent as I get older, no surprise.  On the flip side, I think more about how people like Sue and Aunt Bennie made a difference in our lives and less on the fact that they are no longer here.  I only hope that when my time passes that others will think of me and my work in the same way.

June 4, 2020, the 61st anniversary of my nativity.  I hope that I have the opportunity to shed some positive light into your life.  If not me, then I hope you find someone else who will help you become who God wants you to be.

Have a blessed day.