National Movie Night is Friday, June 13th — and everyone in the family is invited!
Meredith Gaudreau is wishing her late husband (and brother-in-law) a Happy Father’s Day.
The mother of three was married to former NHL player Johnny Gaudreau, 31, from September 2021 until his tragic death in August 2024, when he was killed by a drunk driver while riding a bicycle.
His brother, fellow hockey player Matthew Gaudreau, 29, was also killed in the crash.
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In an emotional essay published in The Players’ Tribune June 12, Meredith Gaudreau relived some of her favorite moments with her husband, including the first time they met, his proposal and their wedding.
She also wrote openly about their life as a family of four — and, after he died, a family of five.
“Happy first Father’s Day as a father of three!” she wrote in the essay.
“Thank you for the very best years of my life. Thank you for making us a family. Thank you for being my best friend, my favorite person, the man of my dreams,” she added.
The couple welcomed their first child together — a daughter named Noa — in September 2022.
“Do you remember how teary-eyed you got when we had Noa?” Meredith Gaudreau wrote. “And she had you wrapped around her finger right away.”
She went on to describe the father-daughter duo as “inseparable.”
“Noa never missed a single home game of yours. Not even one. She loved watching you. She knew where the tunnel was to see you come on and off the ice,” she added.
Johnny Gaudreau played 11 seasons in the NHL — nine with the Calgary Flames and two with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He finished his career with 243 goals and 500 assists in 763 games played.
“She was your biggest fan. Biggest,” Meredith Gaudreau wrote. “And you were hers.”
“As she got older, we’d watch your road games, and she’d point at the TV, “Dada! Dada! Dada!” And from her crib, she’d chant “CEE-BEE-JAY! CEE-BEE-JAY!” she added.
Meredith Gaudreau then described her husband as an “attentive” father who, at times, was “a little nervous” — often checking in on Noa to make sure she was still breathing.
“You were the best dad,” she wrote. “You changed diapers, you cleaned spit-up, you took her when she cried — you did it all. It was all so natural to you.”
Meredith Gaudreau recalls telling her husband about baby #3
In February 2024, the couple welcomed a second child — son Johnny Jr. — into the mix.
“I don’t know who was more excited for him to be here, you or Noa,” Meredith Gaudreau recalled of their second pregnancy, adding that Noa “loves her brother.”
“You leaned into me and said, ‘I can’t believe you gave me a boy.’ You said it over and over again. It was so sweet. I can still hear you saying that when I look at Johnny Jr.,” she added.
She also relived the moment she told Johnny Gaudreau that they were about to have a third baby.
That day came on August 22 — and it was a special day.
“I looked at you, and your face went from pure shock to beaming again to disbelief to pure shock and beaming again,” she said of the reveal.
Despite being “scared” at the thought of having three kids under three, Meredith Gaudreau was ready.
“But your face, John. Your face in that moment told me all I needed to know: that it was going to be OK. That we were going to be the best little team ever,” she wrote.
One week later, on August 29 — exactly four years after Johnny Gaudreau proposed and one day before his brother Matthew’s wedding — Meredith Gaudreau “learned the absolute worst had happened.”
The two brothers were riding bicycles in Oldmans Township, New Jersey when they were hit by a drunk driver. Both Johnny and Matthew were pronounced dead at the scene.
“I thought of our baby inside of me. I couldn’t stand up. I was awake and having nightmares,” she wrote. “Thinking of you in that moment. Thinking of Matty. It’s just the worst thing I could have ever imagined.”
“And in an instant, I missed you more than I knew was possible. And I haven’t stopped missing you since. That feeling never goes away,” she added.
Meredith Gaudreau gave birth to a second son earlier this year
The couple’s third child, a son named Carter, was born April 1 — seven months after his father’s death.
“I wish so badly that you could meet your son. That he could feel your touch,” she wrote, describing the little one as “the easiest” and “chillest” baby.
“I look at him and can’t help but think of you and without fail he gives me a smile that makes my day every time,” she added of Carter.
Of course, Carter’s not the only one taking after his father.
Meredith Gaudreau says her daughter, Noa, is very competitive (like her father) and will often “change the rules” to a game to make sure she wins. She also has her father’s smile, eyes and hair.
“She asked to call you the other day. She doesn’t quite understand what happened. I tell her you’re in heaven and that we can look at photos and videos. It crushes me every time,” she wrote of Noa.
As for Johnny Jr., Meredith Gaudreau described him as “enormous.”
“It’s so funny and cute,” she wrote. “He’s a listener. And I bet he’s going to be a sweet guy, just like you.”
And while she was adamant about Noa and Carter looking like spitting images of their father, she was quick to note that Johnny Jr. didn’t inherit his looks.
But still, she wrote, “They’re all you, John.”
Towards the end of the essay, Meredith Gaudreau promised her late husband that she would raise their kids to be “the best versions of themselves.”
“When the time comes for me to tell them about you, they’ll know how remarkable their dad was,” she wrote, adding that the boys already watch his highlights and Noa looks back on videos of them together.
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“You would have done anything for them. I know that. And they will know it, too. I promise, John,” she wrote.
