An 11-year-old boy was overcome with emotion last Saturday when he met his hero, Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price, in an encounter promised to him by his dying mother before her passing.
Anderson Whitehead from Brantford Ont. lost his mother to cancer last November. Before she passed away, she told her son she would do everything she could to ensure that he met the hockey player that meant so much him.
“All he wanted was a high five and he would have been thrilled to get a high five,” his father Kevin Whitehead told CTV News Toronto.
The Whitehead family decided to try and make Anderson’s dream a reality. They contacted the trainer of the Canadiens through a mutual acquaintance and arranged for Anderson and his dad to watch the team’s morning skate at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.
At the end of the practice, while the players were walking off the ice, Price approached Anderson.
“Oh my gosh, is he really coming over to talk to me,” Anderson remembers asking.
In video of the interaction, Price walks over to Anderson, who is sitting in the stands, and gives him a big hug. Anderson appears in the video to cry into Price’s shoulder.
Speaking with CTV News Toronto, Anderson said that during the hug, Price simply said, “it will be okay.”
The pair spoke for a while and then Price signed Anderson’s shirt, hockey stick, and a hockey puck.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” Kevin Whitehead said. “Once he was done, I just gave him a huge hug and said ‘can you believe your dream came true?’”
Price did not speak with reporters after the practice, but his teammates called the interaction “humbling.”
“I think everyone kinda teared up when they saw it. It's really kinda impressive how a guy like that can kinda make someone's day or someone's life, so it's pretty cool to see. It's definitely pretty humbling for him,” said Canadiens defenceman Victor Mete.
The video, which was posted to social media by the NHL, has been viewed more than five million times.
Kevin Whitehead said that their family was “touched” by the experience.
“(Anderson) was just so happy to share the moment with Carey Price, nevermind five million people that are so touched by the same video that touched our family. It's just incredible.”
With files from CTV News Toronto's Scott Lightfoot
