Norm Beaudin - The Original: Living Life Through Hockey

The Original

Copyright 2022 Norm Beaudin & Kim Passante. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying recording, or taping without the written consent of the author or publisher.

Briley & Baxter Publications | Plymouth, Massachusetts

ISBN: 978-1-954819-33-7

ISBN: 978-1-954819-50-4 (e book)

Book Design: Amy Deyerle-Smith

In Loving Memory of Linda Beaudin

(April 2, 1944-May 17, 2021)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

While this book was in the process of being published, Norm Beaudins wife, Linda, passed away on May 17, 2021. Linda had a legendary sense of humor and a tremendous matriarchal way about her, and although the disease of Alzheimers took hold the past few years and dementia removed many of her faculties, she continued to sparkle right to the very end.

Linda was born on April 2, 1944 and was raised in Regina, Saskatchewan as an only child. Her loving parents Eunice and William (Bus) Lowes gave her a beautiful upbringing with many friends and family vacations to Vancouver. While Linda was studying nursing at Regina College, she met the love of her life, Norman Beaudin, an up-and-coming hockey star with the Regina Pats. They married in 1962, and for almost two decades Linda lived the life of a Hockey Wife, and was the glue that held the family together.

Linda and Norm crisscrossed their way through iconic hockey cities across North America, with stops in Ottawa-Hull, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Buffalo, Ft. Erie, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Winnipeg, then off to Langnau and Sierre, Switzerland for a European adventure. Linda would reel Norm back home to Regina for family support in the off-season before making Winnipeg their permanent home in 1972, where they formed a solid base of life-long friendships. From 1976 to 1979, Linda took a leap of faith to support Norm while he pursued a player-coach role in the Swiss Elite Hockey league. It was in Switzerland that Linda learned to speak German and became a pillar of the community with the American embassy and International School of Berne families, as well as the local Catholic church parishioners. Moving a family of six to live in a small German-speaking farming town could not have been easy, and yet Linda made it all work with a can-do, breezy attitude. She always made the role of wife and mom appear effortless and easy, as she trekked across the continent with 1, 2, 3, then 4 kids in tow. Always quick to make friends in new places, Linda had a feisty superpower in the way of playing Bridge, which helped her to establish roots wherever she landed.

Upon returning to Winnipeg after three full years in Switzerland, Linda revved up her work career as an office administrator at the bustling Silver Heights Medical Clinic. After many cold winters and with the kids grown up, in 1988 Linda and Norm made the big move to Clearwater, Florida.

Lindas humor, strength, and resiliency always softened the impact of any stress and struggle that came from moving around. She worked in the medical profession, assisting various groups of doctors with her administrative wizardry in Winnipeg and Florida. She then took over the financial management of the Beaudin's Hockey Zone and Skate Shops, always ensuring stability behind the scenes while making sure to be the entertainer and hostess at the front of house, and in the rink, with hard work and laughter always in the mix. Linda took the role of Hockey Mom to a whole community at the Tampa Bay Skating Academy and JP Igloo Arena in Ellenton. She made many friends inside the rink, and probably never really watched a full game, from end to end, ever! Never one to watch the scoreboard or care who won or lost, Linda was all about the people she was with, making everyone laugh and feel special. Lindas faith and fortitude were tested to the max when daughter Carrie-Lynn suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm in 1996. Shortly thereafter, however, a miracle and blessing appeared in the form of a call, with a very special person on the other end: her birth mother Christine McGrath from Enderby, BC who had given Linda up for adoption during the war years. They were both keen to meet and a reunion plan was hatched. This led Linda to meet her bonus family of TEN brothers and sisters that she never knew she had, completing her spiritually in a way that was always missing in her life. Lindas new family all became quick friends and shared many tremendous memories.

Linda and Norm left Florida in 2013 for a new adventure in Scottsdale, Arizona where, again, she would build an amazing group of new friends through entertaining, cards, and trips to the hockey rink with Norm. It was in Arizona when the Alzheimers disease began to surface and that would lead to a move back to Canada in 2017 to be closer to their family in Vancouver, Carrie-Lynn, Greg, Odette and Celeste.

Linda was the cherished mother and adored grandmother of David (Brooke & David Jr.), Nadine (Eva), Greg (Odette & Celeste) and Carrie-Lynn. Linda was also embraced as Daughter in-law to Martial and Ferdinand Beaudin (both deceased), Sister in-law to Alain Beaudin (deceased), Harvey and Jeannette Beaudin (both deceased), Lorraine and Jim Wasser (both deceased), Edwin and Diane Beaudin, Annette and John(deceased) Kaufman, Claude(deceased) and Rose Beaudin, France and Ted Theoret, Leona and Ed Thevenot (deceased), Jocelyne and Tom Williams, Aurel and Sandy Beaudin, Bob and Eunice Beaudin.

Linda truly loved being the new daughter to Christine McGrath Mom (deceased), and beloved sister to; Alvin (Butch) and Pat McGrath, Donna and Reg Newman, Victor and Barb McGrath, Victoria and Bob Walker, Marlene and Bill Redding, Max McGrath, Donalda and Doc Taylor Danny and Linda McGrath, Maryanne Litzenberger, Bonnie and Patrick Skelly.

She was an adored Aunt to many Beaudin and McGrath Nieces and Nephews and Linda was also loved by the Lowes and McMinn families who were instrumental in her upbringing. The Beaudin family would like to thank all the wonderful caregivers at Capilano Care Facility (Special Care Unit) and Evergreen House, where she spent her final days.

FOREWORD

Ive met thousands of athletes over a twenty-five-year career on national television in Canada. Ive been behind the microphone and in front of the camera for multiple Olympic Games, World Championships, International Tennis Tournaments, Grey Cups, F1, and Indy Car races. And Ive be fortunate enough to handle television play-by-play duties in the Canadian Football League, the National Hockey League, and International Hockey. After calling radio play-by-play since I was a teen, my first major league foray into the television broadcast booth was in the World Hockey Association. Valentines day, 1975, Bobby Hull and his Winnipeg Jets against Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros. All those years broadcasting junior and senior hockey in the Lakehead and suddenly Im calling a game featuring two of the greatest players of all time. Also on the ice in that game, Hulls linemate for the first two seasons in the WHAa man who would become a lifelong friend: Norm Beaudin. What an honor to be asked to write the foreword for this book.

You could probably blame the late Billy Robinson, the late Don Baizley, or the late Dr. Gerry Wilson. Norm Beaudin would have likely finished his North American pro career playing alongside legendary Bobby Hull were it not for those three Winnipeggers. In 1973, the Winnipeg Jets executive (Robinson) asked the former Montreal Canadien (Wilson) to scout some Swedish first division games while he was studying orthopedics at a sports institute in Stockholm. If Wilson had turned down that opportunity he would have never discovered talented Swedes Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, and Lars-Eric Sjoberg.