Former NHL player Adam Johnson’s fiancée, Ryan Wolfe, said she will “never stop” thinking about him during a heartbreaking eulogy on Monday.
Family and friends gathered for a memorial at Hibbing Memorial Arena in Minnesota, where Johnson was from, to remember the 29-year-old forward, who died on Oct. 29 while playing for the Nottingham Panthers in England after his neck was cut by the skate of Sheffield Steelers defenseman Matt Petgrave.
Wolfe, with her sister Kylie by her side, said she wanted to write him a letter similar to what she would’ve penned for their wedding day.
“Hi babe, I want you to know how much I love you and adore you,” Wolfe said. “You’ve been so amazingly supportive and kind to me since the day we met, and I couldn’t have been more grateful for it. I always thought that maybe if I was lucky enough, after a lifetime together I might start to be more like you. You are such a special person. You have the best sense of humor, the biggest heart, the quickest wit and the kindest soul. You’re unbelievably loyal, dedicated and smart. You’re so, so smart. Whether it came to school or life in general. You just seem to have it all figured out, which gave me so much peace and comfort and made me feel like we could do anything or be anything and we’d be OK. We’d be happy.”
Wolfe said Johnson had come up with plans for them over the last year, as he contemplated starting a farm or coffee shop or becoming a stay-at-home dad to a “band” of kids as she became “some big hotshot.”
“I’m so lucky to have loved you and been unconditionally loved by you,” Wolfe said. “You made me so insanely happy and it feels like an understatement to say we were boyfriend and girlfriend or fiancées. I’ve never really felt like there was a label that could describe us, how well we fit, how in sync and aware of one another we were, how we agreed about everything under the sun, even if sometimes you liked to disagree with me on little things like the quickest way home or the best brand of peanut butter.
“To me, you were everything. You were my home, my best friend, my sounding board, my rock, my safe haven and the love of my life. I’m never going to stop thinking about you, missing you and loving you until we can be together again. I love you.”
Johnson appeared in a total of 13 games for the Penguins across the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
He joined the Panthers of England’s Elite Ice Hockey League in August after playing for Augsburger Panther in Germany last season.
