MEDIA, Pa. (CBS) — Brothers and star hockey players Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau will be laid to rest next week during a funeral service in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
The service will be held at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church in Media on Monday, Sept. 9. According to Johnny and Matthew’s obituaries, the funeral service will be streamed live at nhl.com/bluejackets.
The Gaudreau brothers grew up in Carneys Point Township, New Jersey, where they played hockey at Gloucester Catholic High School before playing for Boston College.
Matthew coached the Gloucester Catholic hockey team after a five-year professional career, and Johnny was a beloved member of the Columbus Blue Jackets at the time of his death, as evidenced by the emotional support by his teammates and the Blue Jackets staff during a press conference and vigil Wednesday afternoon.
The brothers were killed on August 29 after a suspected drunk driver, identified as 43-year-old Sean Higgins of Woodstown, New Jersey, bumped into them while they were cycling on County Route 551 in Oldmans Township, Salem County, police said.
Police said Higgins was attempting to pass a slower vehicle when he struck the Gaudreau brothers, who were driving on the right side of the road. Higgins, who is charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter, is being held at the Salem County Correctional Facility and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a pretrial detention hearing.
Johnny Gaudreau was 31 years old and Matthew was 29.
“As we begin the journey to lay John and Matty to rest, we are deeply comforted by all of those who have visited these growing memorials and left messages of love, prayers, kind thoughts, as well as shirts, skates, sticks, pucks, flowers, candles and so many other tokens of remembrance,” the Gaudreau family said. said in a statement released this week.
Richard T. Gagnon/Getty Images
“We have been brought to our knees, but in the process we have seen and been reminded that we are blessed by all that everyone has done for us through the lives that John and Matty have lived,” the statement continued in part. “We are getting stronger and WE WILL RISE AGAIN. We are Gaudreau Strong!”
Nearly a week after his death, Johnny’s wife Meredith shared a tribute to her late husband On their third wedding anniversary, she wrote on Instagram: “I love you forever John and I am so proud to be your wife.”
Tributes to the Gaudreaus continued to pour in from the NHL and the sports community after their deaths. During their game on Friday, August 30, the Philadelphia Phillies held a moment of silence for the brotherswhose family grew up cheering on Philadelphia teams.
