For a Military Widow, a Bittersweet Gender Reveal

A June bride, Cassie Lohrey had planned on celebrating this holiday season — as well as the rest of her life — with her beloved, Navy Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Ryan Lohrey.

Sadly, though, less than a month after the couple took their first steps as husband and wife, Ryan Lohrey, who was 30, died in a military plane crash in a Mississippi Delta soybean field.

The explosion claimed the lives of all 16 aboard — 15 Marines along with Lohrey.

Cassie Lohrey (pictured at the top of this article) was utterly devastated. “We were just getting our life started together,” she told People magazine. “We wanted a family. We had so many plans, and they were left unfinished.” (LifeZette reached out to Lohrey for an interview, but the family’s been utterly overwhelmed.)

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With the passing of time, however, came divine providence. A few weeks after her husband’s death, a silver lining emerged amid the ominous clouds of tragedy, when Cassie Lohrey, 34, learned she was pregnant with the couple’s first child. (Ryan Lohrey also has two older children.)

“I’m very excited and happy to have a piece of him left with me for the rest of my life,” Cassie Lohrey told CNN. “I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone. I’m overwhelmed with joy and grateful.”

Ryan Lohrey, a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman, was a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, according to his obituary. In addition, he had received a Purple Heart among other awards for his dedication and sacrifices in combat. Formerly of Middletown, Indiana, he graduated from Shenandoah High School in Middletown.

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This past Veterans Day, Cassie Lohrey honored her late husband with a moving gender reveal, enlisting the help of 16 servicemen — the same number that had perished in the plane crash. With poppers in hand, service members unleashed a flurry of pink confetti in the sky — revealing the gender of Baby Girl Lohrey.

“I wanted to honor her daddy on this special day,” Lohrey told CNN. “Veterans Day is a big deal for us every year, but this year it’s extra special.”

The event was captured by photographer Saralyn Johnson.

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Still, the future appears bittersweet for the mom-to-be and her baby girl, who is due to be born in March 2018. She will be named Ryan Jo Lohrey in loving memory of the father she’ll never have the opportunity to meet. (Jo is Cassie’s middle name.)

And as if losing her husband weren’t painful enough, as of this writing an administrative glitch is prohibiting the North Carolina-based Cassie Lohrey from receiving any military benefits — making her loss even harder to manage, emotionally and financially.

As a result, a GoFundMe page has been set up for Cassie and Baby Lohrey, with a reminder from Scripture, which reads: “God promises to make something good out of the storms that bring devastation to your life” (Romans 8:28).

Elizabeth Economou is a freelance writer based in Seattle, Washington.