Rick Rypien

May 16, 1984 – August 15, 2011

Rick was the same age as my niece.  His death makes me sad, I don’t understand depression, what kind of pain he must have been going thru. I feel sad for his family and his friends and team mates.  There’s just no easy reason for why this happens.

I copied this from Wikipedia:  Born and raised in Coleman, Alberta, Rypien played minor hockey in Coleman before leaving to play major junior in Regina. Rypien is the son of Wes Rypien who was a Canadian boxing champion; Rypien’s older brother, Wes, also played in the WHL, as well as several seasons in the ECHL.^[1] Rypien is also a distant cousin of former NFL quarterback Mark Rypien, who was named the most valuable player of Super Bowl XXVI

Jan – 2012

Kevin Bieksa and the Canucks have launched a campain on a website called mindcheck.ca to give people a resource to deal with mental illness.  I think that anyone who has the courage to speak out about this problem deserves our support.

Here’s the link:

http://mindcheck.ca/quiet-hero