\u201cHe lived a hero,\u201d his wife, Emily Jennings, said Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s how he went out, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jennings, 46, of North Yarmouth, Maine,drowned Wednesday off Juno Beach in Florida\u2019s Palm Beach County while his family was vacationing. He leaves the couple\u2019s three children, with a fourth on the way. Their oldest son is Emily\u2019s from a previous relationship, and she said Ryan cared for him like he was his own.<\/p>\n
At about 3:25 p.m., lifeguards with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Ocean Rescue responded to an open-water rescue near Juno Beach, officials said. The fire department said the group had been swimming outside a guarded area and conditions with low tide and an onshore wind were consistent with rip current activity.<\/p>\n
Emily Jennings was on shore sitting with the couple\u2019s youngest child and a niece, building sandcastles, she said. She glanced up toward the water and saw three heads in the distance, those of her husband and two of their children, and then looked back down. <\/p>\n
Moments later, her son emerged from the water and reached other beachgoers first. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe told them his dad and his sister were drowning,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
In the water, Ryan Jennings had been pushing his children toward the shore. During a break in the waves, he threw his son forward and told him to swim, Emily Jennings said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was yelling at him to swim for his life,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
He then turned to his daughter, holding her above his head as the current pulled them farther out, she said. He told his daughter that if he went under the water, she needed to float on her back. <\/p>\n
Another swimmer reached the girl and helped bring her in. Meanwhile, lifeguards who were alerted to the emergency rushed into the water looking for Ryan, Emily Jennings said. <\/p>\n
When he was brought to shore, rescuers began performing CPR, but he didn\u2019t recover, she said. <\/p>\n
Jennings grew up in Longmeadow in Western Massachusetts. He later settled in Maine, where he built a life centered on family and community, his wife said. <\/p>\n
He was a senior vice president for a locally based marketing company, but Emily Jennings said his greatest passion was coaching youth sports, including football, wrestling, lacrosse, and basketball. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe inspired kids not just in what they did, but who they were,\u201d she said. \u201cHe had the ability to see something special in every kid.\u201d <\/p>\n
Geraldine Ollila, a family friend, said Ryan Jennings \u201cwas an aboslute role model\u201d to the kids he coached, as well as his own children. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the man everyone looked up to and could count on,\u201d she said in an email Monday.<\/p>\n
Friends have flooded the family with messages in the days since Ryan\u2019s death, many sharing stories of how he helped them through difficult moments, including in the sober community, where he had been deeply involved, Emily Jennings said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of people who have reached out and said, \u2018Ryan saved my life,\u2019 it\u2019s been unbelievable,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
At home, Jennings was a devoted father whose children were \u201chis greatest joy,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The couple met more than a decade ago when Emily Jennings was living in Portland, Maine, and quickly formed a family. She was a single mother taking care of her 1-year-old son when she first met Ryan. <\/p>\n
About seven months after they started dating, Emily and her baby son lost their home and all of their possessions in a fire. She got a room for them at a nearby hotel, but Ryan \u201cwas like, \u2018absolutely not,\u2019\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe brought us to his family\u2019s house on the ocean and in the course of like three months, we became a family,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
She said Ryan loved her son like he was his own, and they never used the word \u201cstepfather\u201d to describe their relationship. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe love was always the same,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The family had traveled to Florida to visit Jennings\u2019 parents and spend Easter together. Emily Jennings said there were no warning flags posted on the beach that day. <\/p>\n
A rip current is a fast-moving channel of water that flows away from shore and is often difficult to detect from the surface, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters in South Florida had been warning of dangerous conditions for days. <\/p>\n
\u201cOver at least the last week, we\u2019ve had strong easterly winds, and we\u2019ve had multiple fatalities and a lot of people getting rescued,\u201d said Sammy Hadi, a forecaster in the weather service\u2019s Miami office. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be beautiful weather at the beach and above the water, but in the water\u201d it is dangerous, he said. <\/p>\n
The date of Ryan Jennings\u2019 death, April 1, also carries a deeper meaning for the family. Twenty-six years ago, on April 1, Jennings survived a serious medical emergency when his pancreas ruptured and he was resuscitated multiple times, Emily Jennings said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always felt like we got extra time with him,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n