Katie Gaudreau reflected on her difficult year after her brothers, Johnny and Matthew, were killed by a drunk driver the night before her wedding.
“2024 I hate you,” Katie, 26, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, December 31. “You went from what should have been the best year of my life to the worst. You taught me that life is cruel and unfair. You made me feel so small and so lost but you didn’t get the best of me because I have come out stronger and wiser.”
The post featured a video slideshow of Katie’s year, which included many memories involving both Johnny and Matthew.
Katie added, “2025 I am not sure how to feel about you yet because I don’t know how we leave 2024 like this.”
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Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were struck and killed while riding bicycles in Oldmans Township, New Jersey on August 29, just hours before they were supposed to be groomsmen in Katie’s wedding. She has since rescheduled the ceremony for July 2025.
It has been an emotional holiday season for the entire Gaudreau family. Matthew’s wife, Madeline Gaudreau, welcomed the couple’s first baby, a son named Tripp, on Sunday, December 29.
Katie reacted enthusiastically to the news with a comment on Madeline’s Instagram post announcing Tripp’s arrival.
“Yay!!!!!!!!!!!! Aunt Katie loves you, mommy, and daddy SOOOO much,” she wrote.
Johnny and Matthew’s mother, Jane, also responded to the birth of her grandson via social media.
“Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop’s hearts are overflowing with love for you, Tripp Matthew,” Jane shared via her Instagram Story on Sunday, December 29, also referencing her husband, Guy. “We are so incredibly proud of you and your mommy and I know your Daddy is too! 
.”
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Johnny was also survived by his wife, Meredith Gaudreau, and their two children: daughter Noa, now 2, and son Johnny, now 10 months. At a memorial service for the brothers in September, Meredith revealed she was nine weeks pregnant with the couple’s third baby.
Days after Johnny and Matthew were killed, Katie recalled hearing the news as she was preparing to walk down the aisle.
“That day,” Katie wrote via Instagram on September 5. “Right in the middle of getting ready for the best day of my life the unthinkable happens that will change my life forever. I remember a week ago being in the hotel sitting with family and texting Devin about how we forgot to practice our dip. To think that was our biggest worry at this moment when in just a split second and a phone call later our lives would forever change.”
Katie added, “Remember to tell your people you love them. I would do anything to tell my big brothers I love them one more time.”
