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Ryan Morin, 31; explorer had found 'the one'
Jodi Zides met Ryan Morin at a bar on Nantucket
nine months ago. Right away she liked him. He was funny -- he told her he was from L.A., then amended: "Lower Allston,"
in Massachusetts.
The two sparred back and forth, using the old tools of flirtation: sarcasm and wit.
But she also felt at ease around him. A month later, they took a trip to Canada -- a 12-hour car ride that gave them a lot
of time to get to know each other. They hiked the coast and kayaked along the shore through heavy mist. It was something Ryan,
an adventurer, had done before, but a whole new world for Jodi. "That was not my background," she said. "He
was able to bring me up there and show me something new."
Ryan Morin, 31, was known as an explorer. He was
a world traveler, looking forward to a trip to New Zealand at the end of the month. He drove a red Jeep Wrangler and loved
hiking, kayaking and bungee-jumping. He surfed before work and snowboarded on the weekends.
Listening to a litany
of Ryan's accomplishments at a memorial service, his boss, Maria Cirino, was amazed. "It sounded like you were listening
to fifty years of activity," said Cirino, CEO of Guardent, the computer-security company where Ryan was an engineer.
"When did this guy have time to do all this?"
But Ryan found time to stay close to his parents, Paul
A. Morin and Susan Morin, both of Thompson, Conn., said Kevin Brown, a close friend. He'd visit his mother at least once a
week, Brown said.
An amateur guitarist, Ryan also loved music -- especially Van Halen and other classic rock bands.
When a group of friends from work scored free tickets to the Great White show, he was excited.
Jodi talked to him
as he was leaving work that Thursday. "I told him to have a good time," she said. "I told him to be careful
and drive safely."
It was only after Ryan's death that Jodi heard from his friends and family that he'd been
thinking about marriage. Jodi was the one, he'd told them.
He was even trying to decide whether their children
would be raised Catholic, like him, or Jewish, like Jodi, Kevin Brown said.
Whether he would have spoken -- and
what she would have said -- they'll never know. That was all in the future. They were just starting out.
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