- Date Of Birth: January 17, 1982
- Date Of Death: October 22, 2019
- State: Florida
A quiet life that resonated loudly has left a ringing in the hearts of many as Ryan James Garvey Owens passed away on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 due to the effects of the cancer he fought so bravely. Cancer, however, never defined him.
Ryan was born in Boca Raton, FL on January 17, 1982 when the town was indeed small and unassuming. He loved Boca Raton, and returned years later, to the place he always considered home. He was the product of a hard-working, classically middle-class family, and became another hard-working man who wanted to earn his place in the world through his actions and the way he treated others. Ryan moved to Lilburn, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, when he was five years old on New Year’s Eve 1987. A sleet storm hit days after moving there, prompting the kindergartener and his brother, Colin, two years his senior, to find their father Mark’s screwdriver and remove the trucks from their skateboards to make make-shift snowboards. Those flakes were no fluke; they inspired a love of snowboarding that led him to take many trips to the slopes of Utah, Colorado, British Columbia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Switzerland. He also excelled in other sports throughout his life – including baseball, tennis, swimming, racquetball, golf and whatever games he and the neighborhood kids concocted that week. Athleticism was a natural gift for Ryan, and he won championships and set records in many of them.
But being in Metro Atlanta had another much more profound impact on his life. It is where he met his future wife, Margarita Palacios. They met in middle school and, without knowing it then, had found their soul mates. They were each the missing puzzle pieces in each other’s hearts. They were married in 2013 but were together for a total of over twenty years. Sometimes you have the wisdom to know what you have and hang onto it.
Wisdom is something Ryan always had, but always downplayed. He was incredibly smart, but he often discounted that because academics came so easily to him. As a result, he applied himself to more creative outlets with much more vigor, such as music, writing and acting. He had a musical ear and could play virtually any instrument after about 30 minutes of tinkering, but especially loved guitar (his pearl-inlayed Taylor was his prized six-string). He also wrote music and poetry. And he was a regular in high school theatre, namely as Oscar in The Odd Couple and as Kenickie in Grease, and was also a regular featured zombie in the AMC show The Walking Dead.
Ryan and Margarita decided to move to Boca Raton (his birthplace), shortly after Claire’s passing and they lived in a beach apartment for a couple years before buying a home a few miles away, only a mile from the home he lived in as a baby. They settled in with their cat, Mumbles (named after a character in the Dick Tracy comics and movie – he was also a huge movie buff) and lived there until his passing. While cancer was the villian in this story, it was Ryan who was the hero. He never gave up. He even said, after multiple “homerun swing” treatments, that “he’d rather go down swinging that just wait around for it to get him.” A private, humble and deflecting figure, Ryan never wanted to impose on others during his tougher times in life – even in the end. From the time he was a toddler, he wanted to “do it myself.” And he did. But he was never alone. And he isn’t now either. He touched so many, impacted so many, and is missed by so many. All we can take with us is the impact we have on others, and the crater he leaves his vast. And it will never be filled.
Ryan is survived by his wife, Margarita Palacios, his parents, Leslie and Mark Owens, his brother, Colin Owens, sister-in-law Jennifer, and his two nieces, Ellie and Jules. And, of course, his cat, Mumbles, who also never stops talking about him. 🙂
