Book Review - Crossroads - My Story of Tragedy and Resilience as a Humboldt Bronco by Kaleb Dahlgren

When he was two and a half, Kaleb got his first pair of skates. At age five, Kaleb Dahlgren was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. Then he began his journey from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan towards the Humbolt Bronco’s hockey tragedy in 2018 and finally to Toronto and the York Lions. When I opened this fascinating read, I expected the tragedy to take front and centre. However, Kaleb Dahlgren painted a picture of much more.  His parents, both nurses in long term care, provided him with the stability that would carry him through everything that occurred in the next many years. They supported him in his goals and his dream of playing hockey. They were a hockey family in a hockey province. 

I was away from Saskatchewan for over thirty years and had gotten away from this great prairie tradition. Kaleb Dahlgren described hockey games like a play by play from the games. It took me back to going to hockey games in my home town as a teenager. Feeling the cold on my face, the tips of my fingers tingling with cold, and best of all, the cutting scrape of skate blades on the ice. The bang and slash of sticks reaching for the speeding puck. Hockey players slamming against the boards. 

He delved, with pride and affection, into the team building and community activities he and his teammates were engaged in as hockey teams. While creating these lasting bonds, he also began a program he dubbed Diabeauties for kids with diabetes, to provide them with the support and education he had wanted in his young years. He listened to and honoured his coaches, his trainer and his doctors. By his own admission, his memory of the accident in 2018 that killed sixteen of his close friends and team mates is spotty at best. He still lives with severe brain trauma that has stumped his physicians. He has gone on to University at York University in Toronto and was a member of the York Lions. He has relied on his parents, his many friends and the help of author, Dan Robson to write his story. He has had accolades from several in the hockey world including Wayne Gretzky and Hayley Wickenheiser.

This book will stay my book shelf, my attempt at culling my books, sidelined. 

“Writing this memoir was challenging, emotional, 

cathartic and enlightening. I was able to reflect on all 

the various crossroads in my life, the people who helped 

me navigate them, and those who have 

shaped me in to the person I am today.”

~ Kahleb Dahlgren, Crossroads