By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

GRAY – The mood was somber at Cole Farms Restaurant on Thursday.

“Everybody’s saddened here,” said owner Bradley Pollard as customers and staff were grieving the death of Ryan Lagasse, 17, of New Gloucester.

Lagasse recently started working at the restaurant. He was the son of a longtime Cole Farms cook, Lauri Lagasse.

The special-education student died Wednesday at Sabbathday Lake while playing football in the water with his younger brother.

Initial reports were that Lagasse died from drowning. But after an autopsy Thursday, the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office said the official cause of death was pending. It won’t be known for three or four weeks, after medical records and test results are examined, a spokeswoman said.

Pollard said the boy’s mother had been concerned about his health.

“He did have a heart condition,” he said. About a month ago, his mother took him to a doctor for tests, and the boy had fainted, he said.

Lauri Lagasse is the morning cook at Cole Farms. She’s worked there for at least 12 years, Pollard said. On Thursday the restaurant put up a jar seeking donations to aid the family. “She’s going to need the help,” Pollard said.

He added that he didn’t know the teen well, but for the last three weeks, Ryan had worked at the restaurant washing dishes. “I know he appreciated the job. It was his first job. He loved working here,” he said.

The boy told others he was saving money “to buy his mother a rototiller so that they could have a garden,” Pollard said.

“That sounds like Ryan,” the director of the school he attended said.

Lagasse would have been a senior this fall at the Maine Special Education/Mental Health Collaborative School in New Gloucester, said Executive Director Laurie Marchewka. The school, on the Pineland Campus, has about 45 students, ages 5-19.

He has attended the collaborative school since the third grade. “I’ve known him for many years,” Marchewka said. The school works closely with students and families. “We were like a second family to him. I know his mom real well. She’s a hard worker. She loved that kid. That is why he is who he is,” Marchewka said.

In addition to the restaurant, the school has set up a donation for Lagasse’s family. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the MSE/MHC Ryan Lagasse Fund, 41 Pineland Drive, Suite 200, New Gloucester, ME 04260.

Marchewka described Lagasse as hard-working, happy and generous.

“He worked with some of our younger students. If anybody needed a hand, Ryan did what he could.”

He loved cars and trucks, loved riding his dirt bike, and was looking forward to getting his license and his first car, Marchewka said.

Like the teen’s family, staff and students at the regional school were trying to deal with his death Thursday, she said.

The school’s summer classes are in session. On Thursday Marchewka and the clinical director met with students in each class to talk about his death.

“Everybody shared what they will remember of Ryan,” Marchewka said. “Most had funny stories how he’d make them laugh.”