51 years of unforgettable memories

Dorothy Posey cut out every newspaper article she could find about her son, Mike. Not only in Laval Weekly and Montreal Daily, but in New York as well.

The 39 albums collected by the late lady were laid out on a long table in a large room in Sainte-Thérèse’s funeral home, where people could go to pay their respects to Mike.

Also shown are replicas of trophies that Mike won in the National League. But there wasn’t enough room for balls from the 996 goals Mike scored in the regular season and in the playoffs with Laval National and New York Islanders.

succumb to reality

The atmosphere is calm in the next room, as family members receive condolences from visitors.

The shock is over.

“We’re starting to accept it,” says Pierre Kramer, Mike’s brother-in-law.

The guy is well known in hockey circles in Quebec. He led Verdun Junior (1) and Laval Titan (2) to three titles in the President’s Cup.

He also won the Calder Cup with the Sherbrooke Canadiens.

He led the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1987-88 season, narrowly missing the playoffs with a slate that, despite having Mario Lemieux and Paul Coffey, was a far cry from those that won back-to-back Stanley Cups a few years later.

Pierre has done a lot for Laval.

Not only as a junior and junior-level coach, but also as a nature center administrator.

Over 50 years of memories

We are in 1971.

Mike Posey turns 14 when he crosses Kramer Road. It was then that he met Pierre’s sister, Lucy, whom he married in July 1977, two months before he was to appear at his first training camp with the islanders.

Mike and Pierre were more than just two brothers. They had a fraternal relationship for 51 years.

“The family was in for a huge shock when Lucy told us last October that Mike had cancer,” says Pierre.

“We clung to hope that it would work. In February, her doctor said there was nothing she could do more than that. It was hard to take the blow.”

But the memories will never die.

Guardian Angel for her sister

Mike was playing dwarf ranks when Kramer first saw him at Arena Chomedey, where he was working as a municipal employee.

Lucy kept a snack there.

“I led the training sessions for the team that Mike was a member of,” says Pierre.

“I was asked to become a coach, but as a City employee, I was banned from coaching the team for home matches.

“One day when we were going to play an away game, Lucy asked me to accompany us. I explained to her that she was not allowed to get on the bus, only the team was accepted. She was not happy. After the match, I called her to tell her what happened. She locked me up. ! »

Lucy laughs heartily.

“Pierre didn’t want me to miss school, he always protected me,” she says.

“When Mike was in the hospital, he came to drive me in the morning and pick me up at night. He was always like that with me.”

Nothing surprising in that when you know Pierre. It is good in itself.

But he may have been too cute to have a coaching career in the National League. Some of his players took advantage of it.

born mark

When asked what Bossy memory he has, he goes back to when he was coach of Junior B at Laval.

“During our pre-season game with the Big National, Mike frustrated Bob Sophie with a shot that landed in such a small space,” he says, pointing to the opener with his index finger and thumb.

When I tell him that this is where he discovered Mark’s talent, Kramer responds with the humility that characterizes him.

“I don’t have the presumption to say that I expected that he would have a wonderful career.”

He probably didn’t even know that Posey would become his brother-in-law.

As I said In another column two weeks agoPosey was very awkward at 16 when we first met.

Was it because he was uncomfortable with a journalist and photographer?

Lucy replied, “No, it was embarrassing.”

“When we met, he didn’t speak French nor did I speak English.”

How did you communicate? “We wrote to each other,” Lucy says.

Give honor where it deserves

A stone’s throw from Larry Pesciski, a well-known amateur baseball figure in the Laval District.

“Hockey players should thank Mike and Jay LaFleur if they are making $10 million today,” he said.

“They hardly know who they are and what they stand for.”

But Laval will never forget Posey or Kramer. Mike-Bossy’s Square has been down the street in the Auteuil District since 1986.

Arena Chomede, where Lucy Kramer rolled her eyes at Mike, was renamed in honor of her brother Pierre in 2019.

full circle.