In September 2005, I thought I had it made. I was a professional hockey player with the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. I had just signed a four-year contract, I had a beautiful wife, two sons and a four-month-old daughter. But on that 19th day of September, our lives would take a tragic and heartbreaking turn.

 

I was downstairs feeding the boys breakfast, preparing to leave for practice, when I heard a horrific scream from upstairs. It was my wife Ami. Our daughter, Aubri, had passed during the night and Ami found her lifeless in her crib. I ran upstairs to discover a daddy’s worst nightmare of losing a child and held Aubri in my arms praying that God would bring her back. She died of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), something we couldn’t see coming, something we couldn’t prevent. We were so devastated, it was hard to believe things would ever get better.

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But with our faith in God, the support of our family and the devotion of our friends, we made it through those darkest days and have emerged on the other side of this tragedy. Today we have three healthy boys as we were blessed with Griffin Curtis on February 16th, 2007. After living in Chicago, we moved to San Jose, where I played two seasons with the San Jose Sharks, and three additional seasons in Switzerland. Today, hockey is still a big part of our lives as we support the boys on their collective journeys and I'm coaching the next generation.

 

In memory of our late daughter we want to help others who have lost a child. Many couples lose a child but not everyone has a support system like we did. The Aubri Brown Club was created to raise money to help families who have lost a child and support them on the road to recovery. After losing our daughter we knew that helping others with the loss of a child would be near and dear to our hearts, and the foundation is our vehicle to do this.

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- Curtis Brown