Adventure of a lifetime

A grandmother and grandson find a way to mend their broken relationship, one national park at a time

- By Tom Hallman Jr.

Avoiding people in a small town requires the skills of a spy. So Brad Ryan moved like a ghost, taking precautions to stay far away from the woman who had broken his heart. He had not seen or spoken to Grandma Joy in six years.

Brad, 27, had returned to Duncan Falls, Ohio, where he was born and raised, only because he wanted to enroll at Ohio State University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

Already paying off student loans, Brad needed to save money and take a series of upper-level chemistry and physics classes at a local college before applying to vet school. He lived with his mother in his childhood home, and worked nights as a waiter in a local restaurant.

He was halfway through his evening shift when he felt his cell phone vibrate. It was his mother. His younger sister had announced her engagement and a wedding date had been set for a Duncan Falls church.

Brad's heart sank. He loved his sister, but there was no way he'd attend the wedding. Grandma Joy would be there.

Despite Joy Ryan's first name, there wasn't much joy in her life. She grew up in a home with no electricity, running water, or plumbing. She attended a one-room schoolhouse. Engaged at 16 and married at 18, she had her first child-Brad's father-at 21. Two more boys followed, both of whom met tragic ends. Her youngest son died of a drug overdose. The second passed from brain cancer.

She was a housewife, sold Avon products to women in town and babysat for other mothers. When the kids moved out of the house, she took a job behind the deli counter in a grocery store.