July 31, 2006

• Most people that knew Bryan Ruan, whether they knew him well, or not, have heard by now–he passed away earlier today. We heard through a friend that he fell off of a house a couple of days ago and was put in the ICU in critical condition. They operated on him and removed parts of his skull and brain to try and accommodate the swelling of his head, but were unsuccessful. He was then put on life support because he was unable to breathe on his own, and was in a vegetative state. The doctors instructed his recently widowed mother (Bryan’s dad died about two weeks ago) and sister home to decide whether or not to pull the plug. I cannot begin to imagine…I’m not sure what happened next, but we heard today that he did pass away.

  Bryan was probably a year older than I.

  Bryan was an incredible drummer. I had the privilege of playing with him in our chapel band at APU, as well as touring with him and performing alongside of him in the University Choir and Orchestra at APU. My memories of Bryan are almost always of him laughing. I’m a little bit of a loss right now of what to say about such a great guy. I guess I’ve never really done this before for a friend. I haven’t really talked to him much recently, but I was talking to another friend who was really shaken up by it (obviously, they were closer). I guess I just know this will be like a shockwave through the hundreds of folks connected to APU and UCO and to Bryan through whatever means. It is not everyday that a former classmate dies.
  I will not forget Bryan.

  –
  On a lighter note, I had a great time being a part of the worship service with my wife, mom, and sister. April (my sis) led worship and did a really great job, my mom and Christy sang on the worship team with her. April, Christy, and I sang “You Are God Alone” as a special music–it was pretty sweet. It almost went off without a hitch…but the power in Twain Harte went off right before we started our sound check, which of course threw us for a little loop–but April compensated very well…then right before the worship service began, the power came back on and we kinda changed the order of what we were doing. There were a couple of times where I just looked at April and was like, “What song is next??” Haha…It was fun. I only knew a couple of the songs, so it was cool to hear some of what another church is singing.
  I also got to talk to the wife of my the former pastor of the church (he passed away about seven years ago). She is just the sweetest thing! It was fun. She was asking all kinds of questions about Noah, and it was great to see her. Yeah, I think I took her daughter to the prom, or our Christmas banquet, or something…maybe I didn’t…I can’t really remember…oh wait, I totally did. Christy bumped into her and talked to her a little bit…

  I also just watched Aeon Flux at my sister’s house. She’s got a crystal clear 42″ plasma TV with pumpin’ surround sound. It was pretty cool, and the movie wasn’t too bad, either. I liked it, you know, sci-fi.

  Coming home Tuesday…

  • 1:46 am
  • 11 Comments