Ryan's Angels
Reported by: Michael Flannery
Photographed by: Francisco Caceres
Updated: 07/11/03 17:26:07
You might remember Ryan Reynolds.
Ryan was on Nine On Your Kids' Side back in February. At the time, he was fighting an inoperable brain tumor and needed at home day care so he could sleep longer.
This past April, Ryan lost that fight.
A couple of months before he died, Ryan was at a picnic with family and friends. During the hayride portion of the afternoon, he told his mom he could see angels at the picnic. This wasn't unusual, because Ryan often spoke of angels.
But when the family photos from the picnic were developed, right there among the aunts and uncles and friends were white transparent spots.
"We had first thought that it was something to do with the developing," said Ryan's mother, Shirley Reynolds. "We thought that maybe there was spots on it."
The ghostly images appeared as scattered little spots, a sort-of fish shape and one large white globe which little Ryan recognized right away.
"When he saw it, he said, 'Mom, this is why I felt so good to go on the hay ride.' He said, 'Because right there is my guardian angel.' He said, 'I knew she'd be there,'" Ryan's mother said, recounting a conversation with her son.
"'That's my angel Mommy, she talks to me all the time,'" Ryan said to his mother.
Ryan's mom wasn't the only person to get photos of Ryan's "angels". In fact, three different cameras using three different kinds of film were developed at three different places and all had the same transparent white shapes.
On top of that, this wasn't Ryan's first experience with angels, his mother said.
"I said, 'Ryan, I said, who were you talking to?' and he said, 'Mommy, it's my angels.' And then he looked up at me, and he never met my parents, my parents died way before he was ever born -- and he said, 'Mommy, your mommy and daddy.'"
"I said, 'Yeah, what about them?' He said, 'Is that them in the picture on the wall?' And I said yes. And he said, 'Mom, I just wanted you to know, they're both ok.' He said, 'They're just as pretty as they are in that picture, except they have wings and they're waiting for me.'
Angie Shafer had a fourth camera there, taking pictures for the Community Press newspapers. The spots in the photos she took with her digital camera could have been due to low light, but after she saw the other photos, she doesn't think so.
"That's unbelievable," she said. "I believe it though. I believe there was a presence there watching over him. He seemed like such a great kid. The little time I was there and spent with him."
Ryan Kurtz is a photographer for Cincinnati Magazine and has been developing and taking photos for 15 years. Kurtz said he was able to maybe explain away a few of the spots, but only a few.
"That could be from dirt or water on the lens. These -- I've never seen a shape like that as far as a reflection of a flash along with this perfect circle. You wouldn't get a circle like that from a marking on a lens," Kurtz said.
Are these angels or did all three cameras see the same reflections in different places at different times?
"That's really bizarre, I've never seen anything like it," Kurtz said.
I guess only Ryan knows for sure.
"He said, 'They're my guardian angels, Mom. They are all here for me. I'm just not ready to go. They're with me. They've been there since I was born,'" Ryan's mother added.
And now when I think of Ryan, I see him as the happy little, healthy boy he used to be, running and playing.
Are they angels or dust on the lens? You'll have to make your own decision, but this ex-altar boy from St. Clare Church in College Hill, he believes.
