Crime & Safety

Remembering The 'Fun-Loving' Son Struck Down By Tornado

John Glaser recounts the story of his son Ryan's death in the Plainfield twister.

Ryan Glaser was a "fun-loving kid," his father, John, recalls. Just an average student, but passionate about the trumpet, playing soccer and his goal of becoming an Eagle Scout.

What he could have done with his life will never be known. The tornado that ripped through Plainfield on Aug. 28, 1990, cut his dreams short.

Ryan, 15, was a paperboy for the Joliet Herald-News, and he and his brother Josh were delivering papers when the twister struck at about 3:30 that afternoon. Josh was knocked unconscious and suffered a cut that needed stitches, his father said. Ryan was impaled by a piece of flying debris.

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Ryan was conscious when he was brought to the hospital but did not survive surgery, John Glaser said. He had simply lost too much blood, he said.

"When I hear Josh's story (about the storm) — he was across the street delivering papers with Ryan — it's unbelievable," said Glaser, who now lives in Amboy, Ill., near Dixon. "He said when he turned around, it was like 'The Wizard of Oz.' Cars were flying through the air. He saw a garage horizontal off the ground."

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John Glaser has recounted his own story many times. He was teaching at Joliet Junior College at the time, and he remembers looking north and watching the storm roll in, he said. He knew it had been a bad one, but his fear didn't start mounting until he saw the damage getting worse as he headed toward Plainfield, he said.

When he left JJC at about 4 p.m. to pick up his 6- and 8-year-old daughters at a baby-sitter's house in Joliet's Crystal Lawn subdivision, he saw insulation and debris littering the ground along Essington Road, he said. The then-under-construction Aurelio's restaurant (now Cemeno's) on Essington near Theodore Street was badly damaged, he said.

Serious worry began when he saw Grand Prairie Elementary School on Caton Farm Road, which had been nearly destroyed. When he saw the baby-sitter's house was "half gone and half caved in," he started panicking, he said.

The baby-sitter had taken refuge at an undamaged house a couple of blocks away, and Glaser breathed a sigh of relief at finding his daughters unharmed, he said. It would be a short-lived reprieve.

He got home to find his house damaged – windows were blown out, roof shingles gone, an uprooted tree fallen on one side, he said.

"My neighbor came over and told me Josh had been hit in the head. The neighbor had taken him to an ambulance and he'd been taken to the hospital," Glaser said.

Ryan happened to be placed in the same ambulance, he said. The brothers recognized each other, and Ryan was able to speak to Josh, he said.

Glaser's wife was employed as a researcher for Amoco in Naperville, and he called her to come to the hospital, he said. They were given the news that Ryan did not survive surgery at about 6:30 that night, he said.

Twenty years later, not a day goes by that he doesn't think of Ryan, Glaser said. Being a "spiritual person" has helped him go on, he said. So has his family's ability to talk about and remember Ryan.

"It's a pretty open subject with us," Glaser said, becoming emotional. "He's still a part of our family."

Although Glaser and his wife divorced in 1999, he remains close to his children, who are now 31, 29 and 26. Each of them will be in attendance at Plainfield's 20th anniversary event Saturday.

Glaser said he comes to Plainfield often, finding solace at Ryan's grave in St. Mary Immaculate Cemetery. And he tries to remain philosophical. Losing a child is an experience you never overcome, he said, but he must remind himself it could have been far worse.

After all, all four of his children were in harm's way the day the tornado devastated Plainfield, he said.


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