Ceremony marks six months since Ryan Johnson was killed

Whenever Christine Piller felt blue or frustrated, she knew when she made eye contact with Ryan Lee Johnson just what she would get.

“Anytime we were hanging out, if I was having a bad day, he’d always take the time to say, ‘C.P., I love you,’ ” she said. “He always called me C.P. Even if you were a guy, he’d say it, just to make you feel better. But it made you feel so much better, those three little words.”

Stories like Piller’s were as many as the balloons released to the sky in Johnson’s memory the evening of July 26 outside Bales Thriftway in Aloha. About 100 of Johnson’s family and friends gathered to share stories, songs, prayers and their lingering sadness on the six-month anniversary of Johnson’s murder in the store’s parking lot.

The 2008 Aloha High School graduate was gunned down outside the store at 17675 S.W. Farmington Road, during the afternoon of Jan. 26. Details of his sudden demise, however, seemed irrelevant on the warm, sunny evening as Ryan’s friends, relatives, teachers, colleagues and classmates remembered the young man as upbeat, smiling and always willing to listen or lend a hand.

“This is the kind of support my son Ryan would love,” said Tim Davis, Ryan’s father, to the crowd. “He always brought laughter to our house … It’s a struggle every day.”

Chelsea, a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness in Beaverton (who didn't give her last name), shared how Ryan would attempt to use his skills on the basketball court as a tool for flirting.

“Every time he’d look at the door and see me, he’d try to dunk the ball,” she recalled with a grin. “He was horrible and would totally miss it. When I’d see him later, he’d say, ‘As soon as you left, I had, like, three dunks!’ ”

Another friend, one of Ryan’s former Aloha High classmates, recalled with relish the time a substitute teacher overheard Ryan discussing with a group of friends the possibility of sneaking into a bar to celebrate a recent football victory. Enduring the teacher’s disapproving tirade about the alcohol-oriented discussion, Ryan — with his trademark sly humor — finally broke the tension.

“ ‘My name is Ryan Johnson, and I’m an alcoholic!’ ” the friend remembered Ryan exclaiming. “Like everyone here has said, he loved life. He’s with us, closer than ever, in our hearts. We haven’t lost anybody. We just have another angel smiling down on us.”

Stories and prayers for Ryan were complemented with songs, including versions of “Amazing Grace” and “I Hope You Dance” by Jennifer Zielsdorf, who works with Ryan’s father at the Coffee Creek Correctional Center.

Balloon cloud

Davis said it was his wife, Melissa — Ryan’s stepmother — who suggested a memorial service to mark six months since Ryan’s life was taken away.

“She said we need to do something to remember Ryan,” Davis said after the service. “The support from everyone has been so great. There’s so much love. We felt we needed to do something because he was such a part of the community.

“I know Ryan would want us to do this,” he added, “for us to be there for one another.”

As a recording of Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You” began to play, the crowd released a cloud of orange balloons that didn’t fade from the summer evening sky until the song’s final notes.

“He was a shining star to all of us,” Davis said.