This past weekend people from across the country and around the globe learned that a bus carrying a junior hockey team from Humboldt, Saskatchewan was in an accident. A really awful accident where 15 of the 29 people on that bus died.

Half the team.

Like many parents who have kids in sports, this is a worst nightmare come true.  Coaches and kids board buses every day and hit the highways to play games.  Driving late in the dark in every road and weather condition.  Our own daughter played field hockey for the past four years and each season she traveled over 5000 km’s on a bus.

And having been the support vehicle that travels behind said bus I can tel you this: the bus is the best part.

Oh sure, everyone complains about the bus and how cramped your muscles get from trying to sleep on it but make no mistake.  The bus is where everything that matters happens.

The conversations.
The cards games.
The homework.
The motivational speeches.
The de-briefs.
The celebrations.
The magic.

Ask any kid, one thing is true for sure: the more time you spend on a bus, it changes your team from a bunch of players to a family.

On Friday a hockey family was devastated.
Horrifically, traumatically and irrevocably devastated on their team bus.

I just want to drive to Saskatchewan and start hugging people.

I do not have the slightest idea what the families of the victims and survivors need right now to get through this but I know there are many people, including me, offering prayers, food, funds and support any way they can.

In the end, the team chaplain said it best:

"Can we heal? Yes. Will the scars be there? Yes.”

If you have been personally affected by this tragedy, then I send you buckets of love.  If your heart is breaking as this unfolds from one human to another, then I send you love too.

Pain.
Love.
Healing.
Hope.

To the things that connect us all,
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