Brayden Ring's senior photo, taken by Kristie Lisai, showcases two of his favorite things, his dog Keen Bean and his car Clarice, named after the "Silence of the Lambs" character. Ring graduated from Fall Mountain Regional High School in 2021. (Keene Sentinel - Hannah Schroeder)
NH 21-year-old dies amid the worst flu season since 2009 – vnews.com
2025-04-23T16:01:30Z
ALSTEAD, N.H. — Brayden Ring’s family and friends say they’ll remember many endearing details about the 21-year-old who died suddenly last month — even down to his sock collection.
ALSTEAD, N.H. — Brayden Ring’s family and friends say they’ll remember many endearing details about the 21-year-old who died suddenly last month — even down to his sock collection.
“He loved to wear socks and slides, and the socks were obnoxious and outrageous (and) the weirder the sock the better,” said Donalin Rock, Brayden’s mother. At Brayden’s 8th-grade graduation from Vilas Middle School, his principal even mentioned his socks, Rock recalled. Some had monkeys and bananas on them. Others had burgers and french fries.
“He liked to make fun of himself and he just laughed and just wore what he liked.”
Born in Keene, N.H., and raised in Alstead, N.H., Ring was known for being a carefree and affable soccer goalie who liked listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and watching Star Wars. Ring died from pneumonia after getting the flu on March 6.
The speed at which his health declined came as a shock to Brayden’s family. In addition to playing hockey and soccer — both of which he competed in at Fall Mountain Regional High School — Rock said her son didn’t smoke or drink alcohol, and had no underlying conditions.
Ring died during the strongest flu season in the United States since the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
“Influenza varies from season to season for a variety of reasons, some of which we still don’t understand,” said William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University. This flu season, Schaffner said, hospitalizations were high, as the respiratory virus was “in every part of the country on the severe end of the spectrum.”
While most flu deaths occur among older adults and people with underlying health issues, cases like Brayden’s can happen, according to Schaffner. Hospitalized flu patients, Schaffner said, “can otherwise be completely healthy. This is a testimony to the severity of this virus.”
The CDC reports 580,000 hospitalizations from flu-related illnesses in the 2024-25 season, up from 470,000 flu-related hospitalizations in 2023-24. The CDC measures flu activity weekly, but considers the peak of flu season between December and February.
Seventy-one Granite Staters died of influenza-related illnesses during the 2024-25 flu season, the highest number of deaths since the state started tracking flu deaths 30 years ago, according to the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services. Hospitals throughout New Hampshire were frequently at or near capacity during the 2024-25 flu season, with Cheshire Medical Center reporting longer wait times due to respiratory illnesses, according to previous Sentinel reporting.
At the time of his death, Ring was beginning to consider his future. In 2022, he graduated from Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon, N.H., and last December he got an associate degree in sports management from N.H. Technical Institute in Concord, where he was on the soccer team. Ring was also working at Bellows Construction in Alstead, according to his family.
“He had a lot of things in mind that he wanted to do, he just wasn’t sure yet,” said his father, Stephen Ring. “The one thing I can say for sure is he knew he wanted to work with his hands. He wanted to work outside.”
He also had a sense of humor that “was second to none,” Stephen Ring said.
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