Radio legend Gerry Ryan tragically passed away in 2010 at age 53. But while his family miss him massively, his daughter Bonnie Ryan revealed she still feels his presence.
The makeup artist was chatting to Georgie Crawford on The Good Glow podcast, discussing her stunning Italian wedding, and shared how she felt her dad’s presence through her family on the big day.
Explaining, “I think my Dad is in my family, I don’t need to be conscious in thinking, ‘Is he here, does he know I’m getting married?’ I’m telling you now, my Dad is not missing my wedding day. I know he saw me getting married, there is no doubt about it in my mind, he’s in my siblings so, I can feel him all the time.”
Opening up about growing up with a famous father, Bonnie shared that she was simply used to people recognising him on the street when she was younger.
Saying, “I really just didn’t know any different. I think half of me knew that it’s strange to just be walking around with your family and have people shouting over ‘Heya Gerry!'”
“You’re like, ‘How do these people know?’ But on the other hand it’s kind of normal because I didn’t know any different.”
“I was born, and he was who he was by the time I had come along, so I was aware that people knew who we were, but it just didn’t seem that weird to me.”
The influencer also shared how proud she was of her dad’s career and his huge contribution to the Irish media landscape. Explaining how she didn’t fully understand the importance of his work when she was younger but now she’s amazed by his impact.
Sharing, “We talk about my Dad all the time. I think even as I get older, I am trying to create a life for myself and have my own things whether its work or a relationship or whatever it is, and what he did, I’m so much more aware.”
“I was so young when my Dad passed away. I knew that he was good at his job, but now I’m like ‘Oh my God.’ There is just something so magic about him that made everyone feel like ‘Gerry’s my best friend.'”
“He really was a friend to everybody, and I’m like what an incredible gift to have that you make people feel that way. I feel so special that that’s who my Dad was and that he had such a big impact on our whole country.”
“I got to have him for 17 whole wonderful years, and to me, he was just magic.”
Continuing on Bonnie expressed how much she missed her dad, and opened up about her grief, as she was asked if it gets any easier with time.
With Bonnie saying, “I think it does and it doesn’t, in the sense that you don’t always wake up and have that feeling in the pit of your stomach, that shock of ‘oh my God my Dad’s not here,’ and not in a cruel way, but you don’t wake up and he’s not the first thing on my mind anymore, which I’m grateful for because that’s too painful,”
“I really think that anyone who has lost anybody, whether it’s a parent or a friend, you will go on to have a really happy life. Even though you have gone through something so sad, you are able to go on and have all those really happy moments in life and not always be thinking about the sad thing that you’ve gone through.”
Explaining how there are a lot of big milestones, that make her miss Gerry, like her nephew Wolf being born.
As she explained, “But then also as I move on in life and I get to have all these big moments, or just live my life, I’m like ‘God, it would be so cool if he could be here to see this.”
“I have a one-year-old nephew, and I think ‘He’d be the best Grandad.'”
“There are times that it is really hard and I miss him a lot, but you can be very happy in life. I’m just grateful I had him.”
