Anyone involved in youth hockey knows you are a hockey family or not. Hockey is like no other sport, the rink is your second home. The families the people you see more than your own family. You can make life long friends.
My kids miss this life, my son has been so angry. He says yesterday that he misses his life from that time. He misses what we had. That “family” the friends the rink and some of his coaches. He is so young to have to process all these feelings. All the things he lost. He does not have the tools to process all these feeling, and therapist are impossible to find right now.
It’s heartbreaking and infuriating that something that was supposed to be fun and a place for him to make friends turned into something that has caused such trauma and changed this sweet boy into a very angry sad child that I don’t recognize. But if i am honest it’s not just him, this changed us all. I am angry, i am angry because my children lost something (a place) they loved, i am angry because I should have not put my trust in others, I should have removed him form that abusive environment sooner. I miss watching my sons face light up when he takes the ice, I miss the drive to away games where we would leave early in the morning and just have to time with us. It was something we shared, something loved together.