This past Saturday was Ryan Holiday's funeral. It was held at Fruitland Highschool in the gymnasium. There was an impressive attendence. Especially, I thought, for his only being 30 years old. You usually expect that kind of turn out for someone who has had a long life time of influence on people.
Part of the service was a slide show. It must have been about 20 minutes long, if not longer. I'm SO glad they have such a collection of not only pictures, but home videos of Ryan... pulling his oldest son's first tooth, and other fun memories. I'm sure the boys will cherish those pictures and videos. Especially when their memories begin to fade and they want to remember him and know more of what he was like.
After the service everyone went outside where they did a dove release. I hadn't ever seen that before and it seemed to not only be really theraputic for people, but a beautiful metaphor.
There was a special dove that was passed around the people to pet it and think of saying their goodbyes to Ryan.
Then chests filled with doves were opened and the doves flew to the sky.
Ryan's wife, Ashley, and her 2 boys finally pet the special dove and kissed it goodbye and let it go.
It flew up to the sky where one dove met it and flew it back to the flock. It joined the flock and flew away with them. Again, a beautiful metaphor. I can't keep the tears back just thinking about it. It was definitely not a dry eye afternoon.
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