missygirl852000
That was a great story and thanks for writing something about the Stantzes since I'm a big Ray fan. Great job! (*ray)
Ray's family life is certainly tragic, isn't it? His parents being gone is straight from GB1 (“My parents left me that house”); while RGb never says in so many words they're dead, they never appear or are mentioned even when we see some of Ray's other family members (Aunt Lois, Cousin Samantha). Mueller's novelization states they died in a plane crash only a couple years before GB1, but most of the fan community had adopted Shiela Paulson's concept where they died when Ray was much younger. So had I before I'd found out about the novelization, though I did manage to retrofit Carl and Jean into it.
It helps add to the element of “The other Ghostbusters are my real family” that all of the core chacters have to one degree or another. Venkman is an only child (I know, hard to believe with Charlie as his dad, but there you go). Egon's virtually an only child (that's a longer story in GBOT fan fic). Winston has at least one sister, but she apparently lives in Montana. Ray has a brother and a sister, but they hate his guts because of their traumatic childhoods–it's a bitter irony that the Ghostbuster with the biggest heart is estranged from his own flesh and blood.