A family is in mourning, remembering a father of three who sacrificed everything for his children. He drowned in a rip current after rescuing them while in Florida.
In a tribute on Facebook, his wife, Emily Jennings, remembered him as loving and kind. The family was from Maine but was visiting Juno Beach in Palm Beach County. Ryan Jennings jumped into the water after a rip current caught his stepson and daughter.
He first pulled his stepson to safety and then kept his daughter afloat until help arrived.
"His last gift to me was returning my children alive," Emily previously shared, calling her husband "our hero."
Father Dies to Rip Current
"He just kept showing up with kind acts," she wrote.
According to his wife, his greatest joy was being a father
She said, "He coached every sport, I mean never missed a season. Ryan and I shared a deep love for the kids in our community. He had this gift of recognizing what made each child special and nurturing it. He fostered the shit out of it. My son followed him like a shadow through every season. Jax was Ryan's son - not his stepson, no matter how anyone labeled it."
She also described him as someone who touched many lives across his time on this Earth.
She said, "In those 26 years, he touched thousands of lives - offering grace and healing to those in recovery, teaching my son what it means to be a man and a protector, showing my daughters how a man should love you, giving me the chance to spark with my twin flame in this dimension, and bringing these incredible children into the world to do good."
