Marine Veterans Family Reunion Become an Adaptive Scuba Memory

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DiveHeart

DiveHeart Instructor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
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Location
Chicago
A Very Special Family Reunion:
Link to video story: Magazine story:
A Marine Veteran, and scuba diving instructor Andrew Ryal was in my first Diveheart adaptive scuba instructor training class over twenty years ago. He already worked with individuals with disabilities through his job in the Chicago area and felt that if he could combine his love for scuba diving and his love for helping people with disabilities it would be a win/win situation. Then he found Diveheart. His dream came true as he trained to be an adaptive scuba diving instructor with Diveheart and began helping children, veterans and others with disabilities in the Chicagoland area. He shared his passion for scuba diving and his new awareness of how scuba diving and zero gravity underwater could be therapeutic for individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities with his family. They knew his passion and commitment for helping others was real and heartfelt. When Andrew asked his daughter, grandson and great grandson, (who was newly certified as a junior openwater scuba diver) to come on a Diveheart trip with him and his dive club the Windy City Seals in December 2024 his family realized that it might be their last chance to share a special moment with their beloved Great Grandpa Andrew and the patriarch of their family. No one could have anticipated what would happen next. Andrew said to his grandson David that this may be his last opportunity to take four generations of his family on a Diveheart adaptive scuba adventure to show them first-hand the magic and love that he felt in his heart while helping divers with disabilities. David was able to convince his mother who was very busy working as a professional in the medical field in Houston and who did not scuba dive that this was a special moment and perhaps a one-time opportunity. Andrew’s dream came true in December 2024 when four generations of his family came together in Cozumel Mexico on a Diveheart Scuba Adventure trip. Not only did Andrew get to see his great-grandson do his first ocean dives and his grandson do his first night dive with Diveheart founder and president Jim Elliott, the same instructor who twenty years earlier certified Andrew to train adaptive scuba divers and buddies, he made generational memories that would last a lifetime. You see, right before his 80th birthday, Andrew passed away of natural causes. Just thirty days after his four generation Diveheart scuba adventure trip with his family. There are no chance meetings, be present and in the moment. One hundred percent yesterday is gone and can’t be redone, and tomorrow is promised to no one.
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