Honoring Wyatt

If anything, the RPG/LARP community is a welcoming and supportive one. Daily, I am very much pleased to see people supporting one another and encouraging each other in their endeavors both in game and life. Between posts on Facebook groups, and comments on my YouTube channel and others like it, it's truly a small town feel to our interactions. You get to know others and what is going on with them, and you are happy to share as well.

It's because of this connection that makes my second observation even more poignant. When a time of tragedy strikes a member, within minutes they will have the support of others offering whatever help they can. 

Today a mother shared her story with our community. It caught my attention right away because of this smiling face. In fact, I looked at the pictures first before reading the actual post because of how happy this young man is in the photos. 

You can see the love of what he is doing carry through them and, as a mother, it touched my heart. 

The creativity, the eagerness, the joy..all so tangible. 

But then I read her words and the bottom fell out...

This lovely young soul is no longer here on this earth with us. 

Tragically, he is gone...



With her permission I am going to share her words:

Julie W

Hello Awesome Crafters, 
Last week my 17 year old son Wyatt Ferris took his own life after suffering a traumatic brain injury. He was very active in the gaming community, both as player and GM. In order to show our endless love for Wyatt and to honor his countless hours at the gaming tables, we're asking GMs and storytellers around the world to add Wyatt as an NPC in your games. Wyatt was a paladin, cavalier, war priest, rogue, swashbuckler, investigator, Hellknight bodyguard, and more. Please see the photos here of Wyatt and use the hashtags #Play4Wyatt #WyattNPC so we can follow his continued adventures. Thank you for helping this broken hearted mother mend after this tragic loss. I love the gaming community for starting this for my son. My Twitter is @baddicebad.

Yes, I cried. Yes, my heart broke for her. Yes, I am sharing her story about her son. 

She is reaching out to this community in hopes to create something positive and to keep a part of her son alive and relevant in a world he loved. Already there are people taking on the hashtags and creating NPCs in honor of him, and more. I myself have something I am going to work on in his honor, beyond this post. I hope that you might as well. 

If you are unfamiliar with what can happen with traumatic brain injuries, or TBI, then please make a point to do some research about them. Sadly, this is something that is very real and can happen as a result of one. No mother should have to outlive her child, but I am truly amazed at the effort Julie is making to make sure her son isn't forgotten. If this post helps her, then I will write and share this.








Such a simple request, but what an incredible reaction from our "small town" community. Let's make Wyatt proud and keep it up...as tribute to him, and his mom. 

Comments are turned off to this post out of respect for those directly affected by this loss.