Gaudreau brothers are mourned by the hockey community, family and friends as 'linemates forever'
John and Matthew Gaudreau were remembered as loving brothers and husbands who put family above hockey and everything else at their tearful funeral, a week and a half after they died when they were struck by a suspected drunken driver while riding bicycles in New Jersey
MEDIA, Pa. (AP) — She eulogized John Gaudreau through tears that would not be held back, her stories punctuated by sniffles, even an occasional laugh about falling in love with a young man with a mohawk, and the immeasurable heartbreak over a life that ended “way too soon.” Meredith Gaudreau had more to share about her husband than tales of his modest start on ice and rise to NHL stardom — their family of four was soon to become five; she recently revealed to John he would be a father again.
“John and I had the best six months as a family of four,” she said. “These will forever be the best six months of my life."
Meredith Gaudreau announced at the funeral for her husband and his brother, Matthew, both killed when they were struck by a suspected drunken driver while riding bicycles, that she was nine weeks pregnant with the couple’s third child.
She called the pregnancy a blessing, yet the jolt from the disclosure at the Catholic church in the Philadelphia suburbs served as one more heart-wrenching reminder of the joyous futures lost when the brothers were killed in New Jersey on the eve of their younger sister's wedding.
