Sunday, September 1, 2024

To Absent Friends - Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau

 


All deaths are tragic, but the deaths on Thursday of the Gaudreau brothers, Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, are tragic on so many levels as to be Shakespearean in scope. 

The New Jersey brothers played college hockey together at Boston College, and Johnny was drafted into the National Hockey League where he became a bona fide star, "Johnny Hockey", most recently with th Columbus Blue Jackets.   Both leave behind young wives.  Johnny and his wife have two young children and Matthew and his wife are expecting their first child later this year.   The brothers were together with all of the Gaudreau Family to celebrate the wedding of their younger sister, which was to take place Friday.  On Thursday evening, while Johnny and Matthew were on a bike ride, then were struck by a reckless and drunken driver and killed.

Thus, one of the happiest occasions that a family can celebrate, a wedding, turned into a family tragedy of epic proportions.   It is almost impossible to comprehend.

RIP Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, and peace to all of their surviving family members.


Post Script - Please, please, PLEASE always think before you get behind the wheel of  car after you've been partaking in alcohol.


2 comments:

  1. Thank you, Bob. This hits really hard. My son went to BC, so I’d followed Johnny’s career since the beginning. Unbelievably tragic and unnecessary.

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    1. May I ask who you are? Thank you for your comment.

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