Sadly, and with extremely heavy hearts we write that our RYNO family has decreased by one. On Friday, September 13th our lead front end “wish” developer, Jenna Coe, passed away due to an undiagnosed brain tumor. In the wake of her unexpected passing, we are left with a void that will be difficult to fill. Not only in our office, in the incredible web development she so clearly had a strong passion for, but also in our hearts.
We spend a tremendous amount of time with our co-workers, and they are not always acknowledged for the significant role they play in our lives, every day, for 40+ hours a week. Not only do we work together, we laugh together, challenge one another, experience successes and failures, have good days and bad days together. At RYNO, we hold regular quarterly team builders and monthly volunteer events that help bring us even closer together. So, not only is it easy to consider our co-workers our friends, we often refer to them as our family.
While it can be easy to feel that we don’t have the same permission to grieve in the way we would another friend or family member, our team has been lucky enough to feel supported during this time of unexpected loss. We wanted to share our appreciation of many of our client’s understanding over the course of these last few weeks while we’ve taken the time to process and regroup. And on behalf of the entire team, we also wanted to share our appreciation of our owners, Chris and Anna Yano, for allowing us to grieve openly and together. Their unwavering support and dedication to our culture, even while trying to cope with the loss themselves, has allowed each of us to band together and tackle the challenges necessary while we find a replacement for Jenna. We know it’s not easy to be pragmatic in the face of a loss like this, or to put your feelings aside to deal with the effect it has on the overall functioning organization. We’re grateful to have leaders like you!
To say Jenna was a valuable asset to our team would be an understatement. In the years I had as her supervisor, I had the opportunity to speak about her at many of our holiday events and one statement I could never stress enough – we really lucked out, with Jenna. She showed passion, dedication and perfection in her work every day. She was constantly looking for new ways to grow and improve her skills and never let our design team down when bringing their ideas to life – hence the nickname “Wish” developer.
Our RYNO family will not be the same without her, but we hope to carry on by continuing to create amazing websites that would make her proud!
Author: Ashley Williams, National Account Manager