“I was in the ICU at New York Presbyterian. I’d been told I’d be released the next day. The worst, it seemed, was behind me. A commercial that featured a children’s song came on the TV, and suddenly I burst into tears.”
Jake Ryan didn’t know it at the time, but the worst was not totally behind him. The incident was the tip of the iceberg after his open heart surgery, and he was about to enter a different and difficult journey on the road to physical and emotional recovery.
The commercial, says Jake, reminded him of his 3-1/2-year-old twins. Upon discharge, the hospital gave Jake a “care package.” “I remember thinking how much I wished there was a book in the package that would offer guidance for how to be a dad following valve replacement and aortic aneurism surgery. There wasn’t, but it was out of that thought that this book was born.”
A RESOURCE FOR PROCESSING COMPLEX EMOTIONS
Dear Diary Franklin (Arbitrary Press) is a middle-grade novel written in the voice of 11-year-old Hannah Brody, whose father had suddenly collapsed on a gym floor and was in need of serious medical attention.
The book is written in diary format, which gets readers deep inside the head and heart of its young adolescent protagonist and whose tone and thoughts are marvelously captured by the author – a middle-aged adult male, a life coach whose ideas clearly resonate with the social media crowd as his 57,000 TikTok followers (and more than 700,000 likes) attest.
While Ryan said his motivation was to help men (or parents in general) deal with the aftereffects of major surgery in their families and themselves, it is as much a story for children trying to sort through fact and fiction, changing behavior in their parents and learning to understand the trials and tribulations of growing up at this delicate stage of life.
Through her diary, readers hear about Hannah’s feelings and frustrations as she navigates the anger, fear and confusion of the aftermath of her father’s surgery. What are they keeping from me? And why? She repeatedly hears the catchall cliché “everything is going to be fine” so many times that she can only think anything but. Her own translation: “Normal was over.”
While her dad does his best to keep things as normal as possible, his recovery, as you’d imagine, is slow. No more helicopter spins around the room from him. Dad’s routine changes – and so does his moods as PTSD sets in.
Meanwhile, there’s the matter of school and Hannah’s place within what for some is a terrifying social universe. She has few friends (her bestie moved to Hawaii). Then there’s the case of Billy Rocco, a popular class instigator who is teamed with Hannah in the year-end Scene Night class production. Hannah reluctantly agrees to be Billy’s partner (did she have any choice?) in a skit with a theme of being trapped behind enemy lines.
It’s a fun storyline for the kids, but also an interesting metaphor for what is going on in Hannah’s life and what she might be feeling. The experience with Billy is an important one, with an intriguing revelation to follow.
THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPATHY
In Dear Diary Franklin, Jake Ryan has delivered a valuable story for children and grownups alike in how to cope with a difficult life event that nobody can truly prepare you for. He does it by creating a character, based on his real-life experience, to which people can relate, sympathize and learn from.
It’s a tough undertaking. I know. Like the author, I had bypass surgery of my own in the past year, and one of my greatest concerns – besides the obvious – was dealing with the emotions of my daughter, somewhat older than Ryan’s Hannah.
“None of this would have been possible without the support of my now ex-wife Jennifer,” says Ryan. “My surgery was probably harder on her — as is typically the case with the spouse — than it was on me because all I had to do was lay there.
“My main inspiration, though, came from my kids. Unfortunately, seeing me lying on the gym floor that day is one of their first memories. It’s not just that there would be no book without them, but there would be no me.”
About Jake Ryan:
Jake Ryan is in top-flight physical condition. Seriously, dude is ripped. Especially considering he “recently” had massive open-heart Surgery. Currently, he resides all over the world (online), but sleeps most nights in New York City, where he has a thriving Life Coaching business and two amazing teenaged kids — both of whom, the teens that is, he loves with all the might of his bionic heart.
He can be found crushing it on TikTok as @FreeJakeRyan, creating content that enlightens, inspires, and entertains a billion people a day, potentially. While this is his debut novel, he writes a very popular daily newsletter, The Fire Wave Manifesto — yet claims to merely edit it, as the writings are direct downloads from the Universe. Jake takes his work, though not himself, very seriously.
