Sens' Bobby Ryan pens heartfelt letter after mother dies of cancer

Hockey fans, Bobby Ryan says, know only too well about his notorious father.

Now, the Ottawa Senators forward wants people to get to know his mother, too.

Ryan has penned a heartfelt letter to his mother, who recently died of liver cancer, in The Players' Tribune — an online magazine that publishes personal essays written by professional athletes.

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In the letter, simply titled 'Dear Mom,' Ryan writes about how his mother kept his NHL dreams alive after his father was incarcerated for committing a violent domestic assault.

"You worked 16 hours a day so that I could realize my dreams of becoming a professional hockey player. You got a job as the assistant GM at the rink during the day so that I could skate for free, and you worked at the check-in desk for an airline at night so I could fly on standby to go to tournaments with my travel team," writes Ryan.

"And somehow you also found time to homeschool me, make me dinner and teach me how to be a man."

New narrative

Ryan, who was acquired in a 2013 trade from the Anaheim Ducks and signed a seven-year contract extension in 2014, has spoken publicly about his family's tumultuous past — a past that involved his parents fleeing their New Jersey home after his father attacked his mother and was subsequently charged with attempted murder.

The fact that that salacious story became his family's predominant narrative is what inspired Ryan to write a letter in The Players' Tribune.

Plenty of people have asked us about that story, but I don't think enough people know about your story.- Bobby Ryan, writing about his mother

"They know about how dad assaulted you when I was a little kid and how our family ended up moving to California and changing our names so he could avoid going to jail. They know about how he was eventually caught and how you and I had to figure things out on our own. And they know about how I ended up making it to the NHL despite all that." writes Ryan. 

"Yes, plenty of people have asked us about that story, but I don't think enough people know about your story."

Hockey chats over cheap pizza

Ryan says he and his mother — who remains unnamed in the letter — would set aside enough money so that they could go out for pizza once every two weeks, usually during the afternoon so they could split the "happy hour" special.

Sometimes they would talk about financial struggles, other times about girls. But the conversation would always, writes Ryan, eventually come back to hockey.

"For that window of time, we weren't poor. We weren't angry or sad. We were a family."

Ryan's letter to his mother comes less than two months after his wife, Danielle, gave birth to the couple's first child.

"Even though she was just six weeks old, I'm so glad that you got to meet her and also got to say goodbye," writes Ryan.

"As she grows up, I'm going to tell her all about you and the love you had in your eyes when you held her for the first and last time."