RICKY COFFEE MEMORIAL FUND

"MISSING 56-YEAR-OLD SPOKANE MAN PULLED FROM SPOKANE RIVER … "  was not the news we had all been waiting anxiously on since nearly three weeks prior when my brother, RICKY COFFEE, went missing the night before Mother's Day.   Ricky, the middle child of all boys plus me as the only girl, had endured a cruel world, "... since as long as I can remember", he once confided in me.  He was always very different from anyone else, always standing out among a crowd, trying to shine against all odds.  Suffering endless torment from other peers early on was no wonder a result of Ricky dropping out of school in the 11th grade.  He would spend years trying to find freedom from the pain through the use of alcohol and drugs, then to be clean and sober, only to relapse occasionally.  It was such a sad cycle but by any means totally understandable to escape, if only temporarily, the anguish.  But anyone that had the opportunity to encounter Ricky, whether it be family, friends, or someone he might have even met just that day, knew that he was one of a kind.  Special in every way, for sure, you would never forget  once meeting him. Yet for all the sunshine and wonderful that he was, it didn't keep him from being bullied from a very young age, all the way leading up to night he simply "vanished into thin air".  That night, the night before Mother's Day, Ricky had ran several errands, calling my Mom (whom he lived with) several times checking in, making sure his dog was fed, etc.  However, no one would have guessed the call to my mom from the Walmart parking lot that night would be his last. He had just finished his shopping for Mother's Day and had headed out to his car (which he had just purchased recently and was very proud that this was the first one he had ever owned outright).  As he sat in his car calling my mom, for what would be the last time, a man also parked in a "big truck" started flashing his headlights directly into Ricky's eyes for no reason other than one could assume was to harass him once again.  Ricky, for all how "pretty" he was, still stood 6',6" tall and was a muscular 215lbs.  He had been fighting his whole life against bullies, and this was no exception. Ricky would tell my mom he got out of the car and told this bully, "If you don't turn off those lights I'm gonna turn them off for you … ", minus a few expletives, I'm sure.  The man turned off his lights, waited for Ricky to get back in his car, to only turn those lights right back on him.  My mom, all too well knowing the angst and anxiety in Ricky's voice, told him sweetly, "Just sit there and wait a few minutes, you shouldn't drive when you are this upset.  Ricky agreed, telling my mom to leave the front door opened, as his hands would be full and he didn't want to mess with his keys, and that he would be right there in a few minutes. He never came home.  To make matters worse, Ricky's dog, Snickers, missing his owner, stopped eating or drinking.  Snickers' kidneys started failing and my mom was forced to put him down.  And still no sign of Ricky.  Police would find his car a few days later parked on the east side campus of Spokane Community College, where Ricky had pursued his GED and then late last year received a Degree, a task of which he and all of us were extremely proud.  In the car, my mom would be informed were the Mother's Day flowers, her favorite cheesecake, and a bag of dirt that Ricky had been planning to clean up the garden.  As the days turned into weeks, the news headlines seemed to forget about the missing Spokane man, and our prayers seemed to go unanswered, Ricky was found.  Not the way we had hoped, but at least we were graced with the closure of finding him.  Police said he had likely been in the river since the night of the disappearance.  He was able to be first identified by a tiny high heel on his ankle, a pink flamingo on his hip; sparing my mom the task of identifying a body, her baby, that had been submerged under water for almost three weeks.  No answers on how Ricky got there or what had happened.  Could the man in the big truck at Walmart (the last person known to have seen him alive) had something to do with any of it? Or could Ricky have felt that enough was enough and he could no longer be in a world that he believed didn't want him.

I am starting this GOFUNDME page at the insistence of everyone wanting to contribute but just not sure how they can help.  Ricky is finally at peace, but it is now the pain and anguish of my mom, a mother that has not only lost one son to colon cancer ten years ago, but now also a second son gone under suspicious circumstances that we may never know what happened.  Parents should never have to bury their children, a terrible fact my mom is experiencing more than she can endure.  And now that Ricky is gone, the family is trying to move my mom out of the house they not only shared together but also shared financial responsibilities, and into an apartment closer to family.  Between this, funeral expenses, and hospital vet bills for poor Snickers, we are asking the grieving community and beyond for help.  We appreciate all the support and prayers during the last three weeks and no words can express our gratitude for everyone that came forward with condolences, whether they knew Ricky or not.  I think it was best said and the general consensus, "Although I have never met Ricky, his picture tells a thousand words of how great a person he truly was."   Rest In Peace, Ricky, and you were wrong about one thing ... the world DID need and want you, we all just never knew how much.  

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