Another Grief
*content warning: suicide
Last week we heard of the loss of Ryan Stollar, and I know many of us have been struggling with the news. I’ve experienced and witnessed a range of mixed emotions about who Ryan was, his legacy, and his final blog post.
For me, Ryan was a friend and fellow survivor-advocate, and I saw him as someone doing the work with me and so many others. He championed children’s rights and justice for abuse victims. He helped create nonprofits in the homeschool reform movement. He interviewed me on my experience. He offered an endorsement of Rift. I never thought he wouldn’t be here anymore.
Religion News Service asked me to write about him, and I felt it was an impossible task. I was grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts, but I also know my perspective is limited and I wrote this imperfectly. I know others’ experience of Ryan were different from my own, and at the same time, I cannot speak for them. My hope is this piece holds space for all of our experiences and all of our grief.
