Jacob Skinner

By BARBARA GREEN
“We don’t meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason.” (Unknown author)
Melissa Sillivent calls the young man who crossed her path on the worst day of her life a “hero.” Someone who embraced a hysterical mother trying to get home to find her child.
Missing
It was a tragic day for Melissa and Robert Sillivent as their only child, Benjamin Ryder went missing and was found a short time later in a nearby pond.
It occurred on May 25 at a rural residence on Lawhorn Lane near Sunset. Robert Sillivent called 911 to report his two-and-a-half year old son was missing. He told law officers he had been feeding horses and Ryder was playing nearby. When the dad stepped away for a moment he returned to find the boy gone.
Firefighters, police and sheriff’s deputies and medical first responders from across the area arrived to search. After Ryder was found, medical personnel attempted to revive him and he was airlifted to Cook Children’s Hospital, where he died.
The Sillivents are devastated by the death of their first and only child. Melissa says they are trying to take it day by day, but it is so hard
“It just seems so unreal, like living in a nightmare every minute of the day. It’s like you’ve always heard, you blame yourself, hate yourself, ask what’s the point of life? Why is this happening? He was the light of our lives,” she explains through tears.
While the death of their child is the center of their life, Melissa approached The Bowie News because she wanted to thank one young man whom she says helped her get to her baby.

That grieving mother had no idea who the young man was who gave her ride in an effort to get home as everyone searched for her lost child, but eventually she found Jacob Skinner and she wants everyone to know of his kindness on the worst day of her life.

Read the full story in the weekend News.