Chad Miller was many things. A hockey player, was just one of them.
Chad Miller was a son, a brother, a team mate, and a friend. He was, by nearly every account, a person you would want to know and someone you would want to spend time with.
Maybe he was a troubled soul. Maybe, it was just one of those things you just couldn’t kick. In the end, it was just something that got the better of him and at 3:30 Sunday afternoon, Chad Miller lost his fight.
TJHN has covered Chad Miller and his troubles for the last eight months or so. Not because we wished him ill, but because we wished he got the professional help he needed. No one really ever takes pleasure in seeing someone struggle with addiction.
As I sit now and reflect on all I have heard and all I know of Chad Miller, though I did not know him, I was really hopping he would make it through this crisis. Like his family and friends, I had hopped for a miracle that would not come.
We have received so many emails at TJHN about Chad Miller, the great majority of them saying how wonderful he was, that we all have deep sympathy for those of you that have experienced this loss. Some of the stories we have been told make this that much more tragic.
While some may say we need to talk more about what happened, now is not the time. Suffice it to say that the system let Chad Miller, his family and friends, down.
Maybe today is the day someone looks around and decides, that this one more life lost is one too many. Maybe someone finally puts some teeth into the zero tolerance rules. Maybe if enough of you make sure people know the Chad Miller story, someone will listen.
No one should ever have to experience the loss of a child, a family member or a friend the way the Miller family and friends have. Rest in peace.
David Wagner
