'It is like time stops': New tradition forged in tragedy at Ayr hockey rink
CTV
Sitting in the stands at the North Dumfries Community Complex in Ayr, Ont., Tammy Palfreyman is a hockey mom, even though her son is no longer on the ice.
Sitting in the stands at the North Dumfries Community Complex in Ayr, Ont., Tammy Palfreyman is a hockey mom, even though her son is no longer on the ice.
“It has been difficult,” she says. “But knowing how much Eli loved hockey, he lived and breathed hockey… going out his last breath playing hockey, that’s how he would have wanted to go.”
On Aug. 30, Ayr Centennials captain Eli Palfreyman collapsed in the dressing room during the second intermission of a preseason game. The 20-year-old junior hockey player later died in hospital, leaving his team, the small community of Ayr, and the hockey world stunned.
“I know he was so so happy to play that game and be surrounded by his friends,” his mom says. “It was just a bad twist of fate.”
In the days after, flags in North Dumfries flew at half-mast, hundreds attended a memorial for Palfreyman at the community complex, and a scholarship was announced in his honour.
“He was so loved, so respected by everyone, he had so much love for life,” says Tim Barrie, Ayr Centennials director of hockey.
