Ryan Gregory’s Losing Battle With Addiction!

Hi, my name is Roger Finley and I am writing this Go Fund Me page on behalf of our son, Ryan Michael Gregory, because he lost a 20 year battle with addiction today. I would like to tell you a little how we ended up at this point and why it is important to us.

I met Ryan's Mom, my wife, in September of 2001 and he was already 12. When I walked through Darla's door I have loved Ryan and Shaina as my own and I ALWAYS WILL! The more I got to know Ryan the better relationship we developed. During that time Ryan had been struggling with the loss of his Grandma Nettie from 1999 and the break up of his Mom and Dad then her meeting me. With the combination of two traumatic events in a 13 year olds life, I feel he turned to the use of marijuana to not feel anything that he had to deal with. He was acting out at school and home. His drug use continued and it progressed to much harder drugs. He got into some trouble with the law, but it wasn't serious. We got him into a 30 day inpatient treatment program, but he did not stay clean too long. Things progressively got worse and he got into some more trouble and we were able to get him into a 90 treatment program and was clean for about a good 7 to 8 months and then went back out using and quit high school. I was always on him about going back to school and he went back and graduated which I am SO PROUD OF because even though he was battling addiction he graduated high school. Time went on and he ended up meeting Brandi and she became his girlfriend. When they got together Brandi had a Special 1 year daughter, Clara. Ryan and Brandi stayed together through the ups and downs and they created Special Elizabeth, Ryan's first born child. Ryan also has a son on the way. When Elizabeth was born we all hoped that Ryan could pull it together and keep it together. Ryan continued his drug use and ended up in some serious trouble with the law. He went to outpatient treatment and was on probation, but kept violating his probation and was in and out of jail, prison, rehab and halfway houses the last four and a half years. During 3 of those 4 and a half years Ryan had overdosed on drugs and battled on atleast 5 separate occassions and he had to be brought back to life when that happened. This last time Ryan got clean was different because he called us and said he wanted to get clean so he moved in with us. We helped him get his license back and he got a job. He was doing good and good to work everyday, but then his job had a massive layoff and he was one of the ones to go. He couldn't find a job and we noticed a change in him and we thought he was using again. So that leads me to the early morning of December 20th. My wife got a phone call from the hospital at 5:03am saying that our son had overdosed on drugs and was on a ventilator. Our son passed away today December 23rd, 2022 at 3:54pm. I am not telling you about Ryan's drug use or untreated mental illness to make him look bad, I am telling you this so you can see the demons he faced on a daily even sometime a every second basis. Ryan was an AWESOME DAD AND A GREAT SON AND BROTHER! Ryan was a GREAT GUY and would help anyone he could because he had a heart of gold. Ryan loved many people and was and still is Loved by Many! Ryan leaves behind his 2 daughters and has a son on the way. This request that I am asking for means SO MUCH TO ME and is SPECIAL TO ME because I LOVE OUR SON MORE THAN WORDS COULD EVER DESCRIBE!

We do not have the means to pay for his funeral or burial that he is deserving of and that is what the funds would be used for. If you are able to help it would be Greatly Appreciated by me, Darla, Shaina and Shawn, his other 3 sisters Tiffany, Carlie and Melanie and his 3 brothers Tim Allen, Timmy, Michael, his daughters Clara and Elizabeth, Brandi and his Dad!