The wife of a man who died saving two of their children from a rip current is remembering her husband one week after the tragic accident.
Emily Jennings shared a statement on Wednesday, following her husband Ryan Jennings’ death on April 1. Ryan Jennings died while saving his two children, who were struggling in the water off of Juno Beach in Florida, according to a report from the Juno Beach Police Department.
“If Ryan’s story is going to be told, I want it to be in my own words. So I’m sharing this publicly,” Emily Jennings wrote in the statement, which she shared on Facebook.
She added, “More than anything, I want him to be remembered for how he lived. I hope our story inspires love, courage, and kindness.”
Emily Jennings remembers her husband Ryan Jennings who died last week saving their two children.
Emily Jennings/Facebook
According to the police report, the day of the incident, Ryan Jennings entered the ocean to save his two children, who were struggling in the water. The Juno Beach Police Department released audio from several 911 calls placed that day, including one from Emily Jennings, who said her husband was drowning.
The report stated that responding officers were able to drag Ryan Jennings back to shore where they began to perform CPR. Ryan Jennings was “unconscious, unresponsive and not breathing” at the time, according to the report.
Emergency responders from Palm Beach County Fire Rescue subsequently arrived on the scene and took over lifesaving efforts before transporting Ryan Jennings to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.
In a separate statement, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said Ocean Rescue lifeguards at the beach the day of the incident “initiated a water rescue” and were able to assist in bringing four individuals to shore, three of whom were transported to a local hospital. The statement noted the group “was not swimming in a guarded area” at the time of the rescue, and that “conditions, including low tide and an onshore (east) wind, were consistent with the potential for rip current activity.”
“This incident underscores the importance of swimming at guarded beaches, where trained lifeguards can identify hazardous conditions, including rough surf and rip current formation, helping to reduce the risk of incidents before they happen,” the statement added.
In her Facebook post Wednesday, Emily Jennings described her husband as “a real life angel,” remembering how they first met 12 years ago, when she was a “single mom in nursing school.”
“On our first date, he brought chocolate chip cookies from my favorite bakery to bring home to my 1.5 year old son. He just kept showing up with kind acts — from picking out the best sippy cups to leaving Starbucks at our front door when we had early mornings,” she wrote.
She said Ryan Jennings continued to care for her and her son, even inviting them to move in with him after she lost her apartment in a fire.
“We spent our days walking the beach, grabbing coffee downtown, and appreciating the little moments by the fireplace,” she wrote. “Three months passed while I looked for apartments — but what really happened in that time is that we fell madly in love and became a family.”
Eventually, she said, the couple married and moved to Maine, welcoming two more children into their family and learning recently that they were expecting again.
Ryan Jennings’ “greatest love” was his family, Emily Jennings wrote.
“He was always so proud of us,” she said.
Emily Jennings also described her husband’s past struggles with substance abuse, saying he became addicted to pain medication while recovering from a medical emergency. After overcoming his addiction, she said he worked to help others overcome theirs as well.
“He saved so many lives,” she wrote. “I’ve been inundated with thousands of messages from people who say they wouldn’t have the job, the family, or the life they have today if Ryan hadn’t impacted them. He left people better than he found them.”
During his lifetime, Emily Jennings said her husband “touched thousands of lives.”
“Of course Ryan left this world in a heroic way,” she added. “There was no other way for a real life angel like him to go.”
Emily Jennings said her husband will live on “in every life he touched.”
“I feel him all around me,” she wrote. “He will always be my husband, and he will always be their dad.”
