Favorite Fictional Character --- Ryan Lavery

I just finished watching one of the best episodes of All My Children that I have ever seen, I'm so sad that there are only 8 new episodes before Pine Valley, at least on TV, is a ghost town.  Today's featured character is none other than the yummy Ryan Lavery, played by Cameron Mathison.  I tried my hardest not to make this a biography, I've redone it now 3 times.  Instead I tried to got for more of what I think of him.  I think I ended up with a little of both.  Either way, I think you would see he's a great character.

When Ryan first blew into Pine Valley, in 1998, he was a low rent conman looking to score some free money.  On 9/23/11, when the last show airs, he will be know as a devoted family man, business leader, and of of the town's most loved citizens.

Ryan, who came from an abusive home, has tried more than anything to put his past behind him and become a man that he can be proud of.  He was the only one of his siblings to escape the home at a young age, and that decision to leave the others behind came back to haunt him, time and time again.  Almost everything he has done has been an attempt to put his past behind him.

Through the years he has has some crushing losses.  Losses that I think would destroy a normal human being.  He lost his first love, Gillian, to an assassins bullet.  He lost three kids through miscarriage and one shortly after she was born.  He has seen his oldest brother rape a woman and blame him for it.  His younger brother went psycho for a while, shot Ryan and had to have a brain tumor removed before he was normal again.  His sister was killed by a serial killer.  He lost his second true love, Greenlee, not once but twice (she is alive again though.)  One of these things would have brought me to my knees, all of them together, would have killed me.  

Through it all, Ryan has remained a man with a heart of gold who is always willing to go the extra mile for his friends and family.  He as made some horrendous mistakes along the way and he hasn't always treated those around him fairly, but he has always tried to do the right thing.

I'm glad they are ending the show with him in a good place.  Him and Greenlee seem to finally be able to enjoy their lives together.  He has two beautiful children, one with Kendall and one with Annie.  His business is doing well, though they never really talk about it anymore.  He's happy with his life.  If that little abused boy could have pictured a better life for himself, I think this is what it would have been.