Meredith Gaudreau and her children, Noa and Johnny, arrive for the funeral service of her husband, Columbus Blue Jackets hockey player Johnny Gaudreau, and his brother, Matthew Gaudreau, in Media, Pa. on Sept. 9.Adam Cairns/USA TODAY Network/Reuters
The widows of NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, brought mourners to tears during an emotional two-hour joint funeral service on Monday, with heartbreaking personal reminiscences of the two as humble, inseparable buddies from small-town New Jersey.
Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau shared stories of their husbands for the hundreds of lifelong friends, family members, teammates, other players and league executives in attendance, as well as untold numbers of fans around the world watching a livestream of the solemn proceedings.
“The bond that Matt and John shared is something that, unless you knew them personally, even the most perfect words, pictures or videos cannot adequately describe it,” said Madeline, who met Matthew when they were teenagers and was with him for 11 years before they married in July, 2021. “They were attached at the hip, they slept in the same room up until college, and neither of them ever wanted that to change.”
“God really did draft the best two boys,” she added. “Linemates forever.”
Meredith spoke for more than 30 minutes about Johnny’s gentle nature and his love for his family, revealing toward the end of her eulogy that she was pregnant with their third child.
“Despite losing my husband way too soon, I still feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be his wife,” she said. He was, “the most humble person I’ve ever met. Zero ego, quiet, sweet and shy. He was everything and more than I only dreamed about finding in a husband. And then he made all my dreams come true.”
The mass was held at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Media, Pa., about a half-hour’s drive from the rural road in southern New Jersey where Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were killed by a suspected drunk driver 11 days ago while cycling near their family home.
The Calgary Flames, with whom Johnny had played nine seasons, brought in two buses of players, as did the Columbus Blue Jackets, with whom he had signed two years ago. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman also attended.
Among the pallbearers were Kevin Hayes, a long-time friend and a teammate of Johnny’s at Boston College; Andrew Mangiapane of the Flames; Carolina Hurricane Eric Robinson; and Sean Monahan, who signed with the Blue Jackets in July with the intention of playing with Johnny this season.
Matt Rourke/The Associated Press
During the homily, Father Anthony Penna, the director of Boston College’s campus ministry who oversaw the service, recalled first seeing the brothers together at the end of a weekend when Matthew had been visiting Johnny at the university.
As Father Penna approached, he overheard the two bantering in what he described as a verbal tennis match. “This is what they were doing: ‘I love you.’ ‘No, I love you.’ They must have said it 19 times, and I’m sitting there, going, Oh, what’s going on here? ‘I love you.’ ‘And I love you.’ ‘I don’t wanna go.’ ‘Okay, stay with me.’ ‘No, I have to go.’ ‘Okay, go.’ That was the conversation. But I saw in those two brothers a love that I don’t have with my own brothers – and I love my brothers, but they had an intensity to their love that was unbelievable.”
Meredith recalled that, when she first stayed with the Gaudreau family, over Christmas in 2018, she slept in Johnny’s “twin-size bed, a few feet away from Matty, who was in his twin-size bed too. The wallpaper border was footballs and soccer balls and a lacrosse stick. And of course, a hockey puck.”
“This is his home and where he spends his summers – a little different from his set up in Calgary. I’m thinking to myself, He’s far into his NHL career now and he could have it all, but this is all he wants: To be in his childhood bedroom, two twin beds, side by side with his brother.” She noted that, whenever possible, Johnny looked for ways to squeeze moments with his extended family into the itinerant lifestyle of a professional hockey player.
Johnny and Meredith married in September, 2021. Their daughter, Noa, was born in October, 2022. Their son, Johnny, was born in February.
Meredith spoke of her husband’s impressively relaxed nature, joking that it was, “sometimes too laid back. Most of his pregame interviews, you can find him wearing my clothes, my slippers, my hat that had my family’s dog embroidered on it. … The nice clothes I would buy him specifically for the limelight, he couldn’t care less.”
“He would wake up early with the kids even on busy game days to help me. Some mornings I would try to get him to change before going to the rink for an interview, because he was covered in spit-up. But he would just say ‘No, I like it there.’ He was proud of it. And off he went.”
And she praised Calgary for giving her husband a welcoming home away from his home in New Jersey, and for its outpouring of love and support in the wake of his death.
“Calgary had such a special place in John’s heart and mine. I really am blown away by your kindness. But at the same time, I’m not surprised at all, because I have been lucky enough to call Calgary my home with John,” she said. “He is forever a Flame.”
She pledged to one day show her children the city, “where their daddy experienced some of the best times of his life, where he made lifelong friends, and where he called home for 10 years.”
The men were killed while cycling on the evening before the wedding of their younger sister, Kaitlyn, which had been scheduled for Friday, Aug. 30. Sean Higgins, 43, who was charged in their deaths, remains in jail as he awaits the next hearing in his case.
Closing her eulogy, Madeline pleaded with people to never drink and drive. “Call a ride,” she said through tears. “Please do not put another family through this torture.”