Jane Gaudreau is remembering her sons, hockey stars Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, two years after their deaths.
“Over two years have passed and I still feel as heartbroken as I did that day in August when my world fell apart,” Jane wrote via Instagram on Monday, August 31. “The only thing that has really changed is that I have gotten better at pretending I’m okay.”
She continued, “I smile. I laugh sometimes. I go to work. I take care of my family. I help others. From the outside, it may look like life is moving forward, but inside, my heart is breaking because I’m still stuck on the worst day of my life.”
Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver while riding their bikes near their family’s New Jersey home in August 2024. Their younger sister, Katie, was supposed to get married the next day.
“Missing you both every single minute of every single day,” Jane concluded.
Katie and her husband, Devin Joyce, rescheduled their wedding and were married in June 2025. They announced in June 2026 that they welcomed a son named Matthew, named after one of her late brothers.
“We’re so excited to welcome this new life,” Katie told Us in April. “I can’t wait to continue to tell my children stories about their uncles. I look at my parents as great role models of how I want to raise my family. I always say my mom should really write a book about how to raise a family.”
Jane also spoke to Us at the time, opening up about losing her sons and accepting that they would not get to meet their nephew.
“They were just such big fans of children,” Jane said. “Sometimes I think about that and it’s very heartbreaking that they didn’t get a chance to be with their children, or even their nieces or nephews.”
Johnny’s widow, Meredith, gave birth to the couple’s son, Carter, in April 2025 following his death. The couple already shared daughter Noa, 3, and son Johnny Jr., 2. Matthew’s widow, Madeline, was also pregnant at the time of the brothers’ deaths. She gave birth to the couple’s only son, Tripp, in December 2024.
Jane added that Johnny and Matthew’s friends and relatives have continued to make every effort to keep their legacies alive.
“I don’t think people throughout the hockey world — throughout South Jersey to Columbus to Calgary — I don’t think they realize how much they did for us,” she told Us. “By them talking to us and bringing them into their world and seeing what they could do for us or how they could help keep John and Matty’s legacies alive, they just helped us so much with our grief.”
