Some Believe Dying Boy Saw Angels
C I N C I N N A T I, July 19, 2003 -- — A couple of months before he died of an inoperable brain tumor, 10-year-old Ryan Reynolds was at a picnic with family and friends, and during the hayride he told his mom he could see angels.
This wasn't unusual, because Ryan often spoke of angels.
But when the family photos from the picnic were developed, right there among the aunts and uncles and friends were white transparent images.
"We had first thought that it was something to do with the developing," Shirley Reynolds, Ryan's mother, told ABCNEWS affiliate WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.
But Ryan's mom wasn't the only one to get back photos with unusual images. In fact, three different cameras, using three different kinds of film, developed at three different places, all had the same transparent white shapes.
"No, I've never seen that before in a photo," said Angie Shafer, a photographer for a local newspaper. "We thought that maybe there was spots on it."
"That's really bizarre," said Ryan Kurtz of Cincinnati Magazine. "I've never seen anything like it."
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‘That’s My Angel’
The ghostly images appeared as scattered little spots, a sort of fish shape, and one large white globe that little Ryan recognized right away.
"When he saw it, he said, 'Mom, this is why I felt so good to go on the hay ride,' " his mother recalled. "He said, 'Because right there is my guardian angel. … I knew she'd be there. That's my angel, Mommy. She talks to me all the time.' "
Allegedly, it wasn't Ryan's first experience with angels.
"I said, 'Who were you talking to?' " Reynolds said of another incident. "He said, 'Mommy, it's my angels.'
"Then he looked up at me," she added. "He never met my parents — my parents died way before he was ever born. He said, 'Mommy, your mommy and daddy, … is that them in the picture on the wall?' And I said, 'Yes.' And he said, … 'Mom, I just wanted you to know, they're both OK. … They're just as pretty as they are in that picture, except they have wings, and they're waiting for me.' "
Separate Photos
Shafer also had a camera at the picnic, where she was taking pictures for The Community Press. The spots in the photos she took with her digital camera could have been due to low light. But after she saw the other photos, she doesn't think so.
"Unbelievable," Shafer said. "I believe it though. I believe there was a presence there watching over him. He seemed like such a great kid, the little time I was there and spent with him."
Kurtz, the photographer for Cincinnati Magazine, has been developing and taking photos for 15 years. He was able to explain away a few of the spots, but only a few.
That could be from dirt or water on the lens," he said of some of the marks. "These, I've never seen a shape like that as far as a reflection of a flash along with this perfect circle. You wouldn't get a circle like that from a marking on a lens."
Are they angels? Or did all three cameras see the same reflections in different places at different times? Maybe only Ryan knew for sure.
"He said, 'They're my guardian angels, and they've been here since I was born.' " his mother said. "And now, when I think of Ryan, I see him as a happy healthy little boy running and playing doing everything he could no longer do the last nine months."
Michael Flannery is a reporter for ABCNEWS affiliate WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.