Life often changes us in the most unexpected ways. When a devastating curveball messed everything up for this 89-year-old grandma her grandson, Brand Ryan, decided to drop everything and take her on the adventure of a lifetime. Now, they’ve become best friends and an inspiration to millions around the world! Read on and discover their adventures that never fail to inspire and delight…
One Grandmother, Hundreds of National Parks
30-year-old Brad Ryan lives in Washington D.C., and, before too long ago, he lead a fairly ordinary life as a wildlife vet at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in the capital. Needless to say, Brad loves animals and adventures. Meanwhile, his grandmother, 89-year-old Joy, is the opposite. A leukemia survivor, Joy, like most her age, leads a quiet, happy life in a small town in Ohio. And she’s always been like that! Even in her younger days, Joy never traveled much. In fact, she’s never seen the ocean, a cactus, a mountain, a waterfall. The most Joy had ever been was another small town in Florida. However, “they’d drive through the middle of America and avoid the coasts,” Brad adds.
As you might imagine, Brad grew up in the same town, also not traveling much. Until college, that is. There, he began traveling, exploring, and broadening his mind. After returning home from hiking the Appalachian trail, he told his grandmother Joy all about it. That’s when she told him “that she really, really regretted that she didn’t get to do more of that type of thing and have more experiences in life,” Brad recalled. That’s when he realized that he needed to do something about that!
One Big Decision
Sadly, Joy’s husband passed away some 20 years ago, and her three sons have also passed. Believe it or not, she needed to work until her 80s to be able to retire safely! Meanwhile, around the time that Brad told Joy about his trail adventure, a classmate and friend of his took his own life. It made the now-veterinarian realize how short life is and become determined not to waste it!
So, in 2015, Ryan decided to take his grandmother to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He knew they were an odd pair of best friends. In fact, many other travelers asked about the pair! “[We were] touching people’s hearts, but I didn’t know there were so many people who had regrets that they didn’t do more with their grandparents when they were alive.”
After the trip, Grandma Joy and Brad decided they wanted to keep exploring the outdoors together as best friends! Remember, her and Brad’s trip to Smoky Mountains marked her first time witnessing a mountain range, the ocean, giant trees, incredible wildlife, and much more! And their adventures have continued and continued since then…
Becoming Best Friends
Since their first adventure, Grandma Joy and Brad have continued across 38 states, 25,000 miles, and 29 U.S. National Parks, in three and a half years. Before long, the young man hopes to see all 61 National Parks with his grandma and best friend, even though he knows she’s quite fragile at 89-years-old. “We’ve seen grizzly bears, we’ve been charged by a moose … it was harrowing. We’ve had all these dramatic experiences and seen all this wildlife that she’s never set eyes on in Ohio. [But Grandma’s] favorite animal that she’s seen so far are prairie dogs. Which is kind of comical,” he said.
This story is especially inspiring, as Brad says his grandmother has always been a positive person, despite all the struggles she’d been through. “She says she wakes up every morning and says ‘Thank you for another day.'”