When a loved one passes away, such as a parent, it can be hard on everyone who knew them, especially their kids. What’s even worse is losing a parent at a young age. It seems that nothing can really fill the gap that they left behind. All that remains is their memory.

One family has turned to a mutual love of hockey to try and deal with the pain.

A passion for hockey

Brad Harrison was a passionate hockey player and fan who liked to spend time with his kids on the rink.

So, when he passed away from small cell carcinoma of the prostate, his family was left devastated.

Despite his absence, he had left behind a love of hockey to provide some comfort for his passing.

Each year, Harrison had built a hockey rink in the backyard to spend time with his kids teaching them about the sport he loved so much.

A shrine to a husband and dad’s memory

After his passing, the rink became a shrine to his memory and a way for his wife and kids to deal with the pain of his loss. But the rink wasn’t always something his wife wanted.

“I didn’t want the upkeep; I didn’t want to deal with it. So, I said, ‘Fine, but I’m hands-off,’” Harrison’s widow, Beth, told KARE 11.

Telling the kids the news

And while winters were spent in the rink, summers were spent at area campsites.

It was at one such lakeside campsite that the couple gave their three children, 9-year-old Beckham, 11-year-old Ailee, and 21-year-old Kayla, the news of Harrison’s cancer diagnosis.

It was there that they explained to them that this was the last summer that they would get to spend with their dad.

“We just held them and tried to answer their questions, but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Beth said.

Harrison also left a video for his family:

“I hope they can be okay with me being gone and I just worry a lot that it’s going to be hard,” he said, trying to hold back tears.

One final time

In the lead-up to Harrison’s last winter, some of his friends were eager to help the family build the rink.

It was a way for them to show just how much Harrison meant to them.

“We’re a tight-knit group, us hockey families,” Kayleigh McGinnis, one of Harrison’s friends and the organizer of the rink build, said.

Amazingly, Harrison’s friends and family were able to get the rink completed 12 days before he died.

It left the dying mad with the satisfaction that at least a part of his legacy would live on and that a part of him would remain.

As Beth stood there with her two youngest children a couple of weeks after he had passed, she had this to say:

“We know that he loved to play hockey and he loved to skate with you guys.”

Scattering her husband’s ashes

As a final tribute, Beth thought it best to scatter her husband’s ashes beside the rink that he loved so much.

A fitting tribute to the sport that had been such a big part of Harrison’s and his family’s life. And, befitting the situation, the family spent one last time playing hockey with Beth acting as goalkeeper.

“He would be very proud that I did it and he would be very proud that I did it for the kids,” Beth says, “just like he would have.”

For more on this bittersweet story, check out the video below.

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Sources: YouTube – KARE 11, KARE 11