The Widow Of A Fallen Montco Officer Who Died After Bee Sting Reaction Pens Memoir

DOYLESTOWN, PA — It is often said that everyone processes grief differently.

For Whitney Allen, her catharsis is coming in the form of a draft memoir she's working on about her late husband, Ryan Allen, a Hatboro K9 officer who died after months of hospitalization following a freak bee sting allergic reaction.

Ryan Allen was laid to rest in April following a memorial ceremony in Horsham Township, Montgomery County.

On Tuesday, Patch sat down with the officer's 35-year-old widow to talk about the writing project that is helping her get through her own grief, while attempting to help alleviate the grief of others.

"When people were reaching out to me, I felt this compulsion to help in some way and the idea of the book kind of came from that," Allen said during an interview at her home in Doylestown, Bucks County.

Allen had been keeping the community updated on her husband's condition throughout his entire ordeal following the bee sting reaction last fall.

Ryan Allen was in both hospitals and rehab during a six-month period, but sadly he was unable to overcome the severe brain injury he suffered after a loss of oxygen caused by the cardiac arrest he suffered after the anaphylactic shock from the bee sting.

Through her Facebook posts throughout the ensuring months, Whitney Allen kept the world updated about her husband's condition.

The social media posts ended up reaching folks across the country, and the story made national news headlines, even being reported in Newsweek and People magazines.

"It kind of blew up," Allen said. "His story went really viral."

Allen said she received messages from women across the country who had either lost husbands or were about to lose them due to terminal diagnoses.

She said the idea for the book was born out of his desire to help comfort those going through similar traumas.

"I'm just amazed that people were so captivated by Ryan's story, and I hope that I can help people by sharing more of it," Allen said. "I think people kind of romanticize trauma and grief a little bit. You don't want to make it messy when you're doing updates on Facebook. This [book] is more raw. It's all the messy stuff that I wouldn't have shared when I was going through it."

As of now, Allen said she has about 7,000 words already written, and she's connected with a book coach who is helping her through the creative process.

The ultimate goal is to have the book professionally published, as opposed to going the self-publishing route.

And when this first book is done, Allen plans to pen another book, the second one being more of a how-to when it comes to coping with grief.

The current project is more of a memoir about Allen and her late husband, and their shared life together.

Allen, a medical malpractice defense attorney by trade, actually graduated with a dual English and journalism degree, so she said writing is something that comes fairly natural to her.

Her goal is to have a draft of the book finished by August.

Allen said she has a working title or two for the book, but she was not yet ready to share those publicly.

Allen said when her book does eventually come out, she hopes that her words will help others who are going through grief. And the book, she stressed, is designed to touch all individuals, not just widows and families of fallen first responders.

"I think that it is very isolating because people who haven't been through the type of trauma and grief that comes along with having a spouse that is very severely injured and passes away, unless you've gone through that, you just have no idea," Allen said.

While the book project is helping Allen process her own grief — she said you don't "move on" but rather "move through" grief — she hopes others in similar situations allow themselves to heal on their own timeframes and not be too hard on themselves as the process unfolds.

"It's like you just have this backpack and you're just carrying this backpack for the rest of your life," she said. "Sometimes the backpack is really light, and sometimes it's heavy. I'm always going to have this backpack, but you can still move with the backpack."

For now, Allen continues to raise the couple's young boys, Jackson and Leo, and she is not yet sure when she will return to work as a lawyer.

She also said she maintains a very close relationship with her late husband's family; her mother-in-law, who currently resides in Upper Bucks County, even has plans to relocate closer to Allen so she can help with the kids and household.

In the end, Allen said she hopes those who followed her Facebook posts throughout her husband's illness would consider picking up a copy of the book when it's ultimately released, as it will give an additional glimpse into the couple's lives together, and Ryan Allen's successful career as a local K9 officer.

"I didn't know the impact that just sharing the journey that we were all going through, and Ryan's condition, would have on so many people," she said.