{"id":1884,"date":"2020-09-30T10:55:45","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T15:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1884"},"modified":"2020-09-30T11:08:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T16:08:18","slug":"john-patrick-ryan-1953-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1884","title":{"rendered":"John Patrick Ryan 1953-2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our brother, John Ryan, died sometime during the weekend of August 28-30, although the official date of his death is September 1, we were notified on the 31st<\/sup>, a day earlier.\u00a0 Some things just don\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

John was a typical Ryan boy in many respects.\u00a0 We were more than outlaws; we were collectively and individually terrorists in the minds of many Vail, Iowa, residents.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get some disagreement here, but John never really searched for trouble; it found him \u2013 often.\u00a0 And although John had friends, he was a loner for much of his life.\u00a0 Unfortunately, John was addicted to just about anything a person can be addicted to, except religion.\u00a0 Gambling, drinking, drugs, sex, food, and the list goes on into areas I never knew were addictive.<\/p>\n

Maybe John was in more trouble than the rest of us boys, it could be because he was caught more often.\u00a0 John is the only person I have ever known to be cited for\u00a0 \u201cnightwalking.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cOne who walks the street at night is a night walker. Night Walkers are of suspicious appearance and behavior. The term denotes persons who sleep by day and walk by night. The purpose of such behavior can be commission of crime, nuisance, mischief or to disturb peace. Night Walkers are subject to criminal law in respect to misdemeanors actually committed.\u201d\u00a0 The circumstances were strange.\u00a0 He was walking by the softball field around 11:00 pm.\u00a0 There was a town curfew for juveniles, but he was over eighteen years old.\u00a0 I suspect there was a conversation of which I am unaware.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t actually respect law and order.<\/p>\n

He rarely showed emotion, concern, or disappointment.\u00a0 There is no doubt that he was smart, but he was also lazy.\u00a0 He was short 3 credit hours of earning an associate\u2019s degree in golf course management.\u00a0 His GPA was more than respectable.\u00a0 No one knows why he wouldn\u2019t complete the course.\u00a0 He also started his own cleaning business in Omaha, which was successful, until he hired two of my brothers to work for him.<\/p>\n

He was creative.\u00a0 My favorite story about John is the one in which he was homeless at one point and asked if he could rent a room in my basement.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want him sleeping outside, and I knew he couldn\u2019t afford much, so we agreed that he would pay my first wife, Terri, one dollar a day for every day he stayed there.<\/p>\n

One Saturday afternoon, I stopped at the Lincoln Club (better known as \u201cLucky\u2019s\u201d) in Vail after playing 18 holes of golf.\u00a0 He approached me and asked if he could borrow fifty bucks.\u00a0 I was reluctant, but he promised he would have the money by Monday.\u00a0 I gave him the $50, he bought me a beer and drank one with me, and left the bar.\u00a0 When I arrived home, Terri smiled and said, \u201cguess what?\u00a0 John was behind on rent and I brought it up to him.\u00a0 Today, he finally paid the forty-five dollars in arears.\u201d\u00a0 I went down to the basement, drained his waterbed and sold it for thirty dollars.<\/p>\n

John didn\u2019t make the world a better place, as many of us strive to achieve, but it wasn\u2019t a part of his life\u2019s goal, either.\u00a0 He had no \u2018legal\u2019 offspring, as far as any of us know.\u00a0 However, one cold winter afternoon, I was home alone and the doorbell rang.\u00a0 I looked outside.\u00a0 A small woman with a baby in her arms was standing on the stoop.\u00a0 Being cold and windy, I invited her in to keep the child from the bitter cold wind.\u00a0 She said, \u201cI would like to introduce you to your son (or daughter, I don\u2019t remember; it was such a shock)\u201d.\u00a0 I had to tell her that she was sorely mistaken.\u00a0 I had never seen her before in my life.\u00a0 I realized almost immediately what had occurred.\u00a0 John used my name, and it wasn\u2019t the first time.\u00a0 He had used this modus operandi<\/em> of using my name, previously.<\/p>\n

There are numerous John stories out there.\u00a0 I can\u2019t begin to write them all in a small blog.\u00a0 I don\u2019t intend to write a book, either.\u00a0 All I want to accomplish is some small tribute to a brother that went from trouble to recluse.\u00a0 The last time a family member had seen John was when I was traveling to Michigan\u2019s Northern Peninsula circa 1997 and Robin and I stopped in Hancock, WI, to see him and his new wife, Judy.\u00a0 Prior to that, I doubt anyone in the family had seen him since 1990 or the late 1980s.\u00a0 Even John\u2019s wife, Judy, hadn\u2019t seen him in two years prior to his death.\u00a0 My brother Joe provided the photo below of John and his friend, Patti.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know when it was taken.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Patti, John\u2019s friend, and John.<\/em><\/p>\n

I learned how to play chess at an early age.\u00a0 I become quite good at it.\u00a0 I had purchased some books and read about moves \u2013 the Queen\u2019s Gambit, the Italian Defense, etc. (Other than playing my grandson, I have quit playing chess; don\u2019t challenge me.)\u00a0 It was the early 1990s and big news was the World Championship between Bobby Fisher and Boris Spassky.\u00a0 It seems like everyone was paying attention to the matches on a daily basis.\u00a0 Conversation in a bar led me to teach several patrons how to play.\u00a0 Eventually, Mick Buck set up a tournament.\u00a0 I suppose I was favored to win it.<\/p>\n

When I noticed that John had entered the tournament, I questioned him: \u201cYou know how to play chess?\u201d\u00a0 He gave me some simple answer and I gave it no more thought, until I had to play him in the early rounds.\u00a0 He was sharp and knowledgeable about moves and defenses.\u00a0 He had me scrambling to save my queen, and when that was gone, my king.\u00a0 He beat me!\u00a0 I found out after the tournament that he went into my bedroom and borrowed my books.\u00a0 Of course, I should have known, money was involved.\u00a0 It probably wasn\u2019t much, but I know he won back more than the entry fee.<\/p>\n

He did things like that.\u00a0 He managed to die on a day other than the official date on his death certificate.<\/p>\n

There are several times in my life when someone would criticize or curse one of my bothers in front of my mom.\u00a0 She took the side of her boys, which wasn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re my sons, and I love them unconditionally!\u201d\u00a0 John was often \u201cthe least of my brethren,\u201d but like mom, I loved him unconditionally.\u00a0 Rest in peace, John.\u00a0 Finally!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our brother, John Ryan, died sometime during the weekend of August 28-30, although the official date of his death is September 1, we were notified on the 31st, a day earlier.\u00a0 Some things just don\u2019t make sense. John was a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[793,794],"class_list":["post-1884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-john-patrick-ryan","tag-nightwalking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1884"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1884\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}