Only the Good Die Young

I am overcome with such raw sadness. Another young, bright, well-rounded, and gorgeous kid has died from our area. I didn't know him and I don't know his family but it still breaks my heart that his life was so abruptly halted. I feel such empathy for his parents who are probably in a state of disbelief. It brings me back to my brother's death and the pain and heartbreak of losing someone so awesome. I am sick to my stomach imagining how it must feel to lose your child.

This tragedy has been on the minds of so many. Every conversation, with every person I have talked with since yesterday involved talk about this kid, the accident, his parents, etc. Through all those conversations, I have talked and listened without ever shedding a tear. Until now. Now I just looked up the RIP site on facebook for him and now it brings a reality to it. You see pictures of him at a track meet, at a dance, with friends. There's even a comment from him on one of the pictures. Now it is real. This was a real kid, with real parents, who had the whole world before him. Now the tears are flowing, my heart is breaking, and the question of WHY is repeating itself in my head.

Saying Goodbye, Again

You would think that after 10 years of hockey, this time of year would get easier for me and the kids. The time of year I am referring to isn't spring but the end of our hockey season. Our last game was on Sunday. I write that with the heaviest of heart.

The game itself was incredible. It was the championship game (in our division), the kids played together as a team, they played hard the entire game, the score was back and forth, and our superstarts eventually won it in the last 18 seconds of the game. There were unfair calls, a few punches thrown, a player ejected and his mother getting heckled by the ref. Heck, Molly even got into a tumble during the game and only stopped when a couple of teammates broke it up and held her back. It was awesome!

But that hockey game was the end. The end of being intertwined with these families that we have seen four or five days a week since September. The end of Bantam hockey. The end of this group of kids and this group of familes.

We still have the two more hockey events before the season officially ends. We have the Falcons game on Friday where the team will be honored between periods, and we still have the end of year banquet. By then, though, the kids will be already focused on spring sports like lacrosse and baseball and us parents will be "catching up" rather than being fully engulfed with each other's lives.

I think the real dread I feel is the fact that this is the last year of a full season hockey team for my kids. They move up to Midget level next year which is a split season because of high school hockey. High school hockey means a whole different level of hockey that I'm just not ready for....not today anyway. Today, I want this season to remain, I want the kids to stop growing older, and I want Rylee to start playing so I can get 10 more years of Black Bears Hockey!