| It's been 1 year to the day... we all remember what it was like that day. Allow me to recall it from my perspective:
Everyone arrived at Rocky River High with positive spirits. It was the last day of school before Christmas break would begin. We all were excited knowing most of the day's classes were going to be easy, likely having some Christmas party in every class. First period flew right on by, no interruptions or anything. Then, midway threw foods class, aka second period, Mr. Fagan went on the PA and announced that all football players, regardless of what they were doing, were to meet in the band room now. So we did that, but as we were walking down, everyone quickly observed that nobody will really chatting with one another. Everyone had a bad feeling about this. Once I arrived in the band room, I first thought something bad had happened to Coach Lewis, but then, he walked into the room and then the unthinkable happened. He announced to us in a very faded and shocked voice "Early this morning..., Ryan O'Boyle took his own life at his house." Everyone's heart sunk into their stomach. I looked around and every football player was crying on one another, myself included. We stayed in that room for close to 30 minutes and then had to face to rest of the school, which was far from pretty. I saw kids running around the school as if a gunmen had just enter the school, all hugging and shaking hands with one another. I will never forget that moment. All classes were cancelled that day, some people stayed inside the school and simply pondered "why?" I left the school around noon and soon went to St. Chris, where Father John was telling us how to handle a situation like this and was asking us questions about Ryan. The next few days were some of the toughest days to handle. At the wake a few days later, the line at Busch/Corrigan was literally going out the door. People that didn't probably didn't even know Ryan were there. Hard to believe that all of this was only one year ago and earlier today, I went to his grave and there was a very beautiful cross next to Ryan's grave. RIP #40. |
