Marcus Yam for The New York Times
The day after Mother’s Day was the eighth anniversary of the death of N.H.L. player Derek Boogaard. As usual, his mother, Joanne, spent a quiet day of reflection at home in Regina, Saskatchewan, and continued a tradition of writing a letter to her dead son to be published in the Regina Leader-Post.
This year’s letter lamented a missed call from him the night he died. It detailed life events involving his siblings, nephews and nieces, who mostly know “Uncle Derek” from photographs and stories told.
The end of her letter, however, was directed as much to the league as it was to Derek.