Jake Schmidt

“When we were first invited to Milan for the Olympics, we said no. It felt like more than we could handle. But we kept thinking about what John and Matty would say if they knew we turned it down. We knew the answer.

John loved representing his country. From the time he was little, he dreamed of competing at the Olympics. In that final summer, he was working harder than ever, pushing himself with everything he had to earn a spot on that roster. He was going to be there.

Sitting with that knowledge while watching these Games was not easy — but being present for them, surrounded by people who truly cared about John and Matty, made it something we will always treasure.

Every person we encountered took the time to ask about the boys — who they were, what they meant to us, the kind of people they were away from the ice.

What struck us most was realizing that John and Matty's impact reaches so much further than we sometimes see in our own grief.

They are carried by so many people — in locker rooms, in conversations, in quiet moments we will never even know about. That means everything to us.

And then Team USA won gold. When Zach, Auston, and Matthew carried John's jersey around that ice, we were overwhelmed — they made sure he was there. And then to see Noa and Johnny — on Johnny's second birthday — carried out onto the ice to be part of that gold medal photo — there are no words for what that felt like.

John and Matty should have been there, and in that moment, they were.

Thank you to every member of that team for loving John & Matty - and for making sure they were part of something historic. And thank you to everyone at @NBCOlympics and @usahockey for your kindness, your generosity, and for bringing our family to Milan to witness it.

You gave us a gift we didn't know we needed. With love and gratitude, The Gaudreau Family"