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Ride to Remember pays tribute to Ryan Hendrix

Family members Laura, Benjamin and Jamin Hendrix, Don and Heidi Hendrix, and Tim, Locke, Leif and Betsy Hendrix pose in front of the Ride to Remember trailer.

By Bill Moss, Published: July 19, 2021

Law officers would have given anything to have no reason to host the Ride to Remember.

But they did, because one of theirs, Ryan Phillip Hendrix, was one of more than 300 officers who died in the line of duty in 2020. The traveling tribute to fallen officers pulled into Jackson Park on Monday afternoon to honor the deputy who was gunned down in the line of duty last Sept. 10.
“He was the one next to me, the one under me,” said older brother Tim, an English teacher in Oman who was visiting his parents with his wife and two boys. “It’s sad to see, that there are so many people. You think of the families that are represented by those faces.”
The faces number 339 in all, more than double the toll of officers who died doing their job in 2019.
“Horrific,” said Amy Moden, a sort of volunteer counselor who can empathize. Her husband, Master Sgt. William Moden of the Colorado State Patrol died in the line of duty on June 14, 2019. “There was 147 in 2019 that were killed in the line of the duty and 339 is twice the amount and it’s tragic and very sad. Some of it is from contracting Covid ... shootouts, traffic related.”
The trailer will travel to 46 states, covering 22,500 miles to visit 194 law enforcement agencies. Moden, who is accompanying the tour for the month of July, said she joined to be part of “doing what they do best, which is support survivors and agencies and letting them know their fallen is not forgotten and that they are loved across the country and their service is appreciated and their service matters.”
“For me, grief is linear, it’s ever evolving and it changes every day,” she added. “It helps me on my healing journey to know that I’m not alone because I have this amazing blue family that you see here to stand by my side. It’s important to me to let the family know that they are not alone either.”
Law officers from the sheriff’s office and other local agencies exchanged handshakes and hugs with Ryan’s parents, Don and Heidi Hendrix, and two of his brothers, Tim and Jamin, and their families.
The tributes on the trailer featured photos of each fallen officer, starting with Ryan D. Fortini — New York State Police, End of Watch Jan. 1, 2020 — and ending with Angel De La Fuente — Fresno PD, End of Watch, Dec. 28, 2020. And there, between Luis Mario Herrera, Lincoln, Nebraska, police, and Angela Chavers, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, was Ryan Hendrix, in a photo now familiar to the community that mourned him, the square jaw, boyish grin, the light behind the eyes, forever 34.