Texas Mom Reminds Parents During the Holidays That ‘Life Is Too Short’ After Son Dies at 23 in Tragic Accident

One mom is hoping to remind other parents what really matters this holiday season. 

Lindsay Simmons shared a touching message to parents in the Grown and Flown Parents Facebook group months after her son Ryan died in a tragic motorcycle accident in June at the age of 23. 

Recalling having to adjust her Christmas plans last year with Ryan and her daughter-in-law, Simmons said her daughter-in-law asked if she minded the shift in plans at the time. 

“I didn’t even have to think about that answer,” Simmons wrote in her post. “Absolutely not. Life is too short to get upset about trivial things, and now I really know how short it is. We still had Christmas, just on a different day. And I didn’t nag or get upset or create a rift. I just let them do what made them happy.”

The Texas-based mom, who also has a college-aged daughter named Allison, went on to urge fellow parents to let the trivial changes slide, as opposed to focusing on a perfect or traditional celebration with their kids. 

“Guys … life is too short,” Simmons wrote. “Make memories, even if they aren’t perfect or exactly the way you want them. Someday they may be all you have.”

Ryan had been married just three weeks before his untimely death, and his loss is even more potent for the family at the holidays. 

“It made me think about the fact that last Christmas, or when we celebrated Christmas anyway, I didn’t know that was going to be the last Christmas I would have with Ryan,” Simmons told Today.com. “I’m so glad it wasn’t contentious or anything like that. We just sort of went with the flow. I didn’t want to ever make them feel like they had to be here and be miserable. There’s no reason for that.”

Simmons has also been public with her grief on her own page, sharing regular updates to her personal Facebook page. “The day you died a part of me died too,” she wrote in a message to her late son on July 14. 

On Dec. 3, Simmons shared a message of all the things she would have done had she known that her son would be dead this year. 

“I would have told you not to get on that bike,” she shared. “I heard you start it in the garage with dad. You just loved the sound of it. I stood in your kitchen and rolled my eyes when I heard it. I told your friend ‘I will be so glad when he sells that thing.’ I just had no idea, Ry. It didn’t occur to me you would ride it later that night. I would have begged you to stay off of it. Just sell it. But you loved it. You loved the freedom that came from riding fast.” 

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