Above – Cub Scout & Boy Scout Tribute for Luke and Ryan
Tonight I went to a touching Cub & Boy Scout tribute for the Houghton Family and especially, Luke (12) and Ryan Houghton (10). I was deeply moved to see and hear Luke and Ryan’s courageous young friends get up and talk about my nephews. The loss is still too much to comprehend. They wrote their tributes on a 40 foot long piece of paper and I would like to hang it at the foyer before their memorial service (let me know if one of the troop families wants to do this and return it to us). I brought it home and we wept as we read Luke and Ryan’s friends talk about the impact they had on their lives along with the small crafts that were etched on the paper. The scouts gave us a beautiful bouquet. The troop will also be building a bench in their honor. Thank you so much!
Luke and Ryan’s music teacher, Therese Johannesson wrote the following poems:
To Dede, David, Luke and Ryan 7/7/11
What confusion of lift and speed?
You are a family!
Whole and intact,
strong against any adversary.
No hesitation marred your take off.
You launched into life
laughing, soaring!
Diving
Arms around each other
like a quartet of aerial acrobats
We are left on the ground
with empty arms
Staring into the sky.
To Luke 7/8/11
A Science Experiment
A boy and his boiling point
Compression and explosion!
A periodic table of questions, puzzles and mysteries.
Year after year, inch after inch,
What a man he will become!
Amid postulating the difference between fission and fusion
a young life stopped short, by the last experiment
carrying your amazing future discoveries
To a place that couldn’t possible need you
as much as we do.
One of Luke’s friends said that he was so smart, they expected him to cure cancer. We need a poem for Ryan if someone wants to send it to me. I’ll update it on this post. BTW, if anyone who knew any of the Houghton’s wants to write a poem or blog post (and even add a picture) I’ll post it.
Please write your comments to Luke and Ryan below. This is our way of dealing with and resolving our grief. Thank you for reading. This writing and the community I’m finding in your comments is consoling.
With much love,
John
Ryan knew “The cookie rule” well at Aqua Safaris. He knew that by the time the basic scuba class went to their pool session some one would leave a tank standing breaking the cookie rule and have to bring cookies to the next lecture. I can recall giving a lecture and seeing Ryan’s face peeking over the banister to look at the table for cookies. I couldn’t help but smile and stop so he could grab a few for him self and some for Luke( I’m not sure if the cookies actually made it to Luke) the funny part is he came back three times before DeDe reminded him that the class wanted cookies too. We all had a good laugh. I can still see her smiling at her much loved son, and hear her laughter.
I will sincerely miss Ekul and all of his family. Ekul is Luke backwards he liked being called that. I will miss his Halloween parties, birthday parties, basically all of his parties. I will miss fencing with him and having fun with him. I’ll never forget the two birthday parties when we got to launch rockets (even though mine was a dud) and I will never forget Luke’s party when we all got to go scuba diving in a swimming pool. Luke and I were the only two to stay at the bottom of the pool until our air tanks ran out. Whenever I would go to his house I would leave with a cool thing like a flashlight/laser pointer (I love laser pointers). His parents would always help him and me out with whatever we were doing, and they always made the fun times possible. Luke was probably the best at reuniting people who we haven’t seen in a long time, mostly because they didn’t go to B-40 with us anymore. I hope he will continue doing experiments (and making potato cannons) up in the great beyond and throwing outstanding parties with his ancestors and family. I have been in the Dos Alas program with him since kindergarten or first grade and we have had some fun times in the past from shooting bb guns at his house, to having fun with dry ice. I will never forget him for as long as I live. – by Alex Ginella
Ryan was such a good influence on my son….. I will never forget a time when I took Ryan, and my son surfing at Cowells and Ryan got run over by an older novice surfer who was out of control. Ryan was hit pretty hard in the leg and I thought there might have been a serious injury after about ten minutes on the beach walking it off complete with tears. I thought we’d be meeting DeDe at the emergency room,
Ryan looks up at me and says “can I go back out and catch one more wave, I’d hate to end this session like that”
It is an honor to have known the Houghtons and they will always be fondly remembered!
John Ribera
Today, Nico is missing Luke as am I. I am missing the whole family but Luke is strong on our minds and in our hearts. As we drove from picking up one of Nico’s friends, Nico asked when we could go by AquaSafaris again. Even though we had just passed it on the freeeway, we turned around and drove along Frontage Road to the business, Nico was sad to be sure but he was also happy to be talking about Luke to one of his friends. Nico’s friend had met and hung out with Luke before so by the time we reached the intimate memorial site there they both approached it with reverence. They looked at and talked about the the pictures, read and signed the windows (Is there a limit to number of times we can sign it
? ) and they even went into David’s business and talked with Sandy (?). Thanks for all the laughs! We already miss you to the ‘Moon and Back’. And we do’t want to ever forget you or your family!!! Thanks for having the Memorial up still!!!!!