Article content continued
Kennedy then encouraged me to delve into my experiences, my regrets, for public consumption.
“I think it’s a great piece that I haven’t seen too many people write on,” he said. “The whole town of Swift Current felt that way.
“If I look at Swift Current, there was so much shame and guilt that we saw from people and that I heard from people, because they saw Sheldon and Graham having breakfast at the Husky truck stop or something.
“They’re like, ‘I should have known.’ Why? Why should you have known? I think it’s some of the personal guilt that we carry that makes us believe we should have done something or known something. At the time, nobody talked about this stuff.”
I talked to Kennedy for more than an hour, with the conversation eventually branching off into what I saw and shrugged off in 1993.
“I think this story needs to be about your experience and how it makes you feel,” reiterated Kennedy, a member of the Order of Canada. “Maybe your interview with Sheldon Kennedy was that he told you to write about your own story.”
Which is also his story.
In May of 1993, I was covering the Broncos at the Memorial Cup in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Four years earlier, with Kennedy in a starring role, the Broncos had won the CHL’s championship tournament.
On an off day for the 1992-93 WHL champions, two other teams were playing at Sault Memorial Gardens. James was pre-scouting the game from up high.
Just as I entered the press box, I saw Kennedy — then a 23-year-old member of the Detroit Red Wings — hurriedly walking toward me. He was visibly upset. I stood to the side so as not to impede his departure.
