Sharon Browne was in her home office working on paperwork for the upcoming AC residency, when the phone rang. She picked it up without looking at the caller ID. "Sharon Browne."
"Sharon, it's John Kelly." The voice on the other end sounded horrible - strained and ragged with worry.
"John! What's wrong, you sound awful! Has something happened?"
"Yes." A pause. "There's no easy way to say this. You aren't driving or anything are you?"
"No, I'm at home." Sharon was getting even more worried now. "What's happened, John?"
"It's Ryan." A sob entered the man's voice. "He...he fell down the stairs at home this afternoon and fractured his skull. There's bleeding in his brain. He's in intensive care, in a coma and on a ventilator."
"Oh my God," Sharon breathed, horrified. That sweet, gentle man. "Have the doctors said anything about what might happen?"
"They can't really tell yet." The despair in John's voice was terrible to hear. "They literally told us that the outcome could be anything from his dying to having a complete recovery, and everything in between. They say it's likely to be a recovery period of months or years, though."
Sharon's mind was racing. Telling the rest of the "family", and how best to do that. What could be done to help. What information to release, and when, and to whom. And what to do about the upcoming residency, since Ryan obviously wouldn't be able to join them.
"I'm so sorry, John," she said. "You know our prayers are with you, of course, and we'll help in any way we can. I'm assuming that I can tell the rest of the 'family'?"
"Yes, but we don't want anything released to the fans yet. You may have some questions, Mari put a post on Ryan's professional Facebook asking for prayers because he was in the hospital. That's been taken down, but we're not sure how many people might have seen it."
"I will absolutely follow your lead on that, no questions," said Sharon. "You tell me what to release, when, and to whom. As active as Ryan is on Facebook and Twitter, we're bound to have questions start up, but I'll impress on everyone that they are to say nothing on their own social media or anywhere public. Now, where is he, and what can we do?"
John gave her the name of the Belfast hospital, and then said "I'm not sure how much help it will be for anyone to come here. They've told us no one but family is permitted to visit in intensive care, and then only one or two at a time. I know the other boys are like brothers, and I'll talk to our family about seeing if the doctors will let them in, but other than that I don't think it will help to have everyone crowding around here. It can only draw attention to this. The hospital already knows to keep everything on the quiet."
"I don't think we'll be able to keep the boys away, John," Sharon said, knowing how close they all were. "But I'll definitely tell everyone else to do what they can from home. Please keep me updated, and call me at any time, no matter what time, all right?"
"Yes, Sharon, and thank you. The chaplain is here to take us to Ryan's room in the ICU, so I need to go. I'll call you as soon as anything changes."
"Call me even if nothing changes, John. Please".
"God bless you," John's voice cracked. "We'll keep you updated."
_
As the phone call ended, Sharon broke down in tears. Poor Ryan and his family. And their mutual family in CT. She didn't cry for long, though, as she had so much to do. She wanted to start the calls to the "family", but with only a few weeks until they needed to be in Atlantic City, she had another call she had to make first.
"Colm here, what can I do for you, Sharon?" Colm Keegan was the newest member of Celtic Thunder, only having been hired a few weeks ago. He was expected to record the new show with them in August, then begin promo tours in the spring and go on the road with them the following fall, a nice long time to get into the swing of things.
"Colm, I'm sorry to do this to you," Sharon said, and she could hear her voice breaking as John's had done. "I'm going to need you full time much sooner than I expected."
"What's wrong, Sharon?" Colm's gentle voice was full of concern.
"Ryan's had an accident. He's in a coma in intensive care. I need you to be ready to understudy for him for Atlantic City. I know it's only a few weeks away, so we don't have much time. Can you do it?"
"I'll have to, won't I?" said Colm. "My mate's not going to like me missing his wedding, since I'm one of the groomsmen, but he'll understand. What do I need to do?"
There were a thousand things. Meeting with wardrobe so he'd have costumes. Getting together with David Munro to work out which songs he'd do and get the parts for the ensembles. Getting an emergency work visa and planning flights. Colm made a list, said good-bye to Sharon, and went to tell his parents and his brother Mark, and then to call his friend and bow out of the wedding party, knowing that he was going to be on a very fast roller coaster for the next month.
That chore out of the way, Sharon turned to the job of notifying the rest of CT. She called David Munro to have him pass the information onto the band, Mark Johnson to tell the production staff, and David Greene to tell the crew. She impressed on each of them that they couldn't help by going to the hospital, and that they were not to breathe a word of this in public, and to pass this on. All information would come through her, by the request of Ryan's family. Then she began the awful task of telling the other lads. As she'd expected, once each of them got past the initial shock, each said, "I'm on my way," converging on the hospital to do whatever they could to be there for Ryan and for his family.