AN ECLECTIC LIFE, ENDED TOO SOON
Ryan Parent’s accomplishments masked his struggle with mental illness. But after 56 hours in a hospital psych unit ‘cell’ he vowed never to go back. At the age of 37, he killed himself.
Deeply religious, Ottawa’s Ryan Parent was an accomplished kick-boxer, wedding photographer, software developer, swing dancer, disability advocate and friend of the homeless.
His eclectic life ended in suicide on Nov. 22 after a long struggle with mental illness.
“He always looked out for the underdog: He just was a humble person,” says his mother, Ellen Parent.
Ryan suffered depression as a teenager during the winter months. The affliction would colour much of his adult life, but he did not let it define him.
“He hid it well,” his mother said.
After graduating from Brookfield High School, Parent studied at the University of Ottawa and Carleton, where he helped to establish special programs for the disabled.
While at Carleton, he also became involved in what one judge later described as a “Shakespearean tragedy” — an improbable fight between two rival groups of students in which 19-year-old Tareq Aman was killed. Parent pleaded guilty to being party to manslaughter for his role in the melee, and was given an 18-month conditional sentence — a form of house arrest — and a year of probation. (He later received an official pardon.)
While in custody after his arrest, Parent was comforted by reading the Bible and it set him on what would become a lifelong spiritual quest “to find answers,” his mother said.
After finishing school — he graduated with an economics degree — Parent launched a moving company called Jesus Moving. He was by then an active member of the Nepean Baptist Church.
Parent believed in a handson form of Christianity. He often went downtown to take homeless people to dinner and to pray with them. He set up a booth at Mooney’s Bay to wash feet.
“Ryan always convinced me to join him whenever he came up with an idea to help people,” Ottawa’s Sarah Farris recalled on a Facebook memorial page dedicated to Ryan, with 386 members and more than 1,000 posts.
She helped him wash feet at Mooney’s Bay even though the whole idea made her squeamish.
“I joined him on these adventures anyway and people loved it,” Farris said. “They loved him. He gave complete strangers his email or number and said if they needed help with anything to let him know.”
About a decade ago, Parent took up photography even though he didn’t own a camera. He bought one, studied photography and got in the wedding photography business. Later, he developed a software company, Vidrack, that offered a video recording platform for business.
Parent developed a wide group of friends, and organized meet-up groups for Ottawa-area photographers and marketers.
All the while, he battled depression. He took antidepressants, but would often stop the medication once he started to feel better. Last fall, however, he could find nothing to relieve his crushing symptoms.
Said his mother: “Ryan put on a very brave face. He told me, ‘I want to live and I’m trying hard.’ ”
He killed himself at home on Nov. 22.