JonBenet Ramsey’s Dad Reveals Regrets About Daughter’s Last Christmas

JonBenet Ramsey’s Dad Reveals Regrets About Daughter’s Last Christmas 60 Minutes Australia/Nine Network

JonBenet Ramsey’s father, John Ramsey, has said the regrets he has over his daughter’s last Christmas before she died has taught him something important. JonBenet was murdered on December 26, 1996 when she was only six years old, and John Ramsey said there’s something that haunts him about that holiday even 26 years later.

  1. JonBenet got a new bike for her main present in 1996. She wanted to ride it outside, as you would, but the family was in a rush as they were going out for food. That meant there wasn’t much time for the little girl to enjoy her gift. “We went out in the back alley and she rode it up and down the alley a couple of times,” John Ramsey told The Sun. “I said, ‘OK, we gotta go, we’re going to be late for dinner.’ To which she said, ‘Oh Dad. Please let me go just one more time,’ but I told her, ‘No, we’ll do that tomorrow.'”
  2. In hindsight, John Ramsey says it’s “hurtful” knowing that there was “no tomorrow” for JonBenet. “That’s what I remember vividly. Her asking me to go just one more time, and me telling her no we’ll do it tomorrow,” he explained. “Of course, there was no tomorrow […] it’s a hurtful thought now.”
  3. He learned something important from that experience. In essence, it made him realize that he had to take time to appreciate what matters. “I had a mother write me [years later] and she said your loss made me take that extra five minutes when my child asked for my time because you don’t know,” he said. “So that’s another life lesson. … Don’t be so busy that you say we’ve got to wait until tomorrow. That’s what I remember most from that day.”
  4. We could all learn from that lesson. We’re often so caught up in things that aren’t important in the grand scheme of things. It means we take for granted the time we swear we’ll make down the line. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. We could all do with remembering that more often.
Piper Ryan is a NYC-based writer and matchmaker who works to bring millennials who are sick of dating apps and the bar scene together in an organic and efficient way. To date, she's paired up more than 120 couples, many of whom have gone on to get married. Her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Cut, and many more.

In addition to runnnig her own business, Piper is passionate about charity work, advocating for vulnerable women and children in her local area and across the country. She is currently working on her first book, a non-fiction collection of stories focusing on female empowerment.