Miriam Forero Ryan

A beautiful soul has been born into eternity on 25 June 2026 after her year and a half battle with pancreatic cancer. Miriam Forero Ryan was born in Bogotá Colombia on 26 September 1949 to Gustavo Forero Martinez and Mercedes “Mercy” Palacio de Forero. She was the fourth in a family of six children. Miriam was a quiet, loving, hard-working, generous, humble but determined person of utmost integrity. She was the best friend and loving companion to her husband, Michael J. “Jerry” Ryan for over 46 years.

Miriam was educated in Catholic schools in Bogotá through high school. In 1969, she was married to David Dahnke, a Peace-Corps volunteer working in Bogotá. Later in 1969, the couple moved to the United States, where they gave birth to their son, Michael in 1973. In 1977, the marriage ended while they were living in San Antonio, Texas. Miriam and her young son remained in San Antonio where she continued her education while working. In August of 1979, she received her Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and began working as an accountant for the City of Leon Valley, Texas.

In late November 1978, Miriam and Jerry were attending a meeting for widowed and divorced persons at a Catholic church in San Antonio, where Jerry was stationed in the Air Force. Jerry noticed Miriam’s beautiful smile when she and some friends and Jerry went to coffee after the meeting. The next day he called one of Miriam’s friends to find out how to contact this attractive person. Perhaps driven, as Jerry would say, he found her phone number and called her. They began to date and became engaged in June of 1979. They were married in January 1980 in Saint Brigid’s Church in San Antonio. Jerry and Miriam always said that God picked them for each other.

With her son Michael and Jerry’s four children, Timothy, Kathleen, Margaret (Peggy) and Deborah, they established a combined family and always treated each as equal in the family: “The Ryan Family,” and always “our children.” In June 1981, Rebecca was born and now the Ryan Family had six children.

Family here in the United States and in Colombia was very important to Miriam. Birthdays were always remembered with a card and a phone call. Many visits to Colombia by Miriam and Jerry included an extra suitcase filled with “gifts” for family members. The emptied suitcase always returned to the United States full of gifts from her Colombian family for her family in the United States. Her mother, sisters and brother also would come to visit Miriam and Jerry in the United States. Miriam could not stay away from each of her grandbabies and had to come visit every chance she could.

In August 1981, the Air Force transferred the family to Dayton, Ohio where Miriam worked as the accountant and “corporate entity” for a legal practice. In 1986, the family was transferred to Bedford, Massachusetts where Miriam worked in a CPA firm in Burlington. In 1988, upon Jerry’s retirement from the Air Force, the family moved to Nashua, New Hampshire and Miriam started working for a local company, Delta Education. She was hired into the accounting department at Delta and eventually moved up to become the department manager. She retired from Delta Education at the end of 2004.

In January 2005, she and Jerry spent the next eight years traveling in their motorhome visiting many national parks and Canada but mostly visiting their children and grandchildren across the United States. Their favorite place to spend winter months was in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas. Miriam loved going dancing with Jerry at the various RV parks in the valley. After ending their motorhome journeys, they continued to make trips including touring Europe by auto, train and river boat, and sailing on cruises to Alaska and Canada, the Baltic, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean.

Besides working as an accountant, Miriam also volunteered at the Corpus Christi Food Pantry. She loved to help those in need and was able to use her bilingual gift to reach out to those who only spoke Spanish or Portuguese, many times going to their support with other agencies besides the food pantry and bringing items that they needed. During tax-filing seasons, she volunteered with either the AARP or VITA free tax preparation programs and many times interpreted for Spanish and Portuguese speaking taxpayers. She also served the local community as a voting ballot clerk during elections and primaries. She never missed the opportunity to vote which she considered a privilege and a duty.

Miriam loved tending to her flowers in her gardens, and her house plants which she also liked to talk to. She would wake them in the morning by wishing them a good morning sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish while opening the window shades and put them to sleep at night by closing the shades. She also loved the backyard birds especially her cardinals who visited her bird feeders. She loved to cross stitch and crochet. Her stitching work is found around the walls of her home and those of her children. She also loved reading biographies and historical fiction in both English and Spanish.

Miriam is survived by her husband, Jerry; by her six children, Timothy Ryan, Kathleen Ameduri (Jody Twombly), Peggy Espino (David), Deborah Hearn (Sean), Michael Dahnke (Maria) and Rebecca Keenan (Justin); by her eleven grandchildren, Gabriel Ryan, Grace Ryan, Rachel Ameduri Sherman (Timothy), Phillip Ameduri, Nathan Espino, Emily Espino, Lelianna Dahnke, Alexander Dahnke, Evelyn Keenan, Jacob Keenan, and Joshua Keenan, and her first great grandbaby Elliot Owen Sherman (due any day soon). Miriam is also survived by her sisters, Clara Forero de Gomez, Aurora Forero de Forero, Martha Forero de Forero, and brother Gustavo Forero Palacio. She has many surviving nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Miriam is predeceased by her parents, Gustavo and Mercy, and by her sister Mercedes Forero de Angarita.

Family and friends are invited to Miriam’s visitation on Monday, June 29th from 4 until 7 PM at FARWELL FUNERAL HOME, 18 Lock Street, Nashua, NH. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at the Parish of the Resurrection, 449 Broad Street, Nashua, NH, Tuesday, June 30th at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the Corpus Christi Food Pantry and Assistance at 3 Crown Street, Nashua, NH 03060. To leave an online message of condolence, please visit www.farwellfuneralservice.com