The Life and Death of Ryan Hender$on

Dad or Pito as we not so lovingly refer to him, sent his daughters a txt Tuesday to say our brother, Ryan, was COVID positive. By Friday morning he was found dead in his bed, naked and arms outstretched like Christ on the cross by Pito. With in a couple hours, I had jumped in my car with a bag and headed the seven hours north, from Chattanooga to E-ville. I had an ominous feeling deep down in my gut of the drama that was coming my family’s way. I never got off the phone for seven straight hours. Calls from friends and family continual, as the news spread like a West Texas wildfire of my brothers early and unbelievable passing. I however, knew he was going to die. I had known at some level since his 48th Birthday, on April 24th. In actuality I had known since he was thirty, that death was coming for him. 4 months and 4 days earlier in a Lakota Sioux sweat lodge ceremony in Taos, NM, I had given my brother up as a sacrifice for 9 generations of “white privilege”. He and my resentment were laid on the alter, and I ask for peace and suffering to end on that mystical day. My older sister Tiffany and I had also had another odd and rare conversation with our Dad over the phone, before embarking on our Native American Ritual experience. It is a ceremony of death and rebirth. All I know is we were honored and humbled to participate. But, wow did we ever get our money’s worth from that Andrea Price Yoga retreat? An ultimate story of forgiveness and sisterhood. #APY #THL