It is always hard to find words after something like this happens, you sit there and you realize that you can’t really find the right words to describe how kind hearted and hardworking she was.
For one year Piroska was the international liaison for the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation, before that in 2009 she was the goalie for UTE-Marilyn HC women's hockey team. Despite being rail thin the drive and fight in her that was easy to see made her become a goalie. She had health problems from a young age and become of this her lungs did not fully develop but she lived an athletic life to make up for this and to strengthen her lungs. She never found an excuse at practice both on and off the ice, he she was a step behind her teammates would always wait for. This year when she stop going to training because of health reasons her teammates would still want to wait for her, but what know?... This was a question that for national team forward Szilvi Dettrich asked herself, who was teammates with Piroska from the start. “Now she will always be with us on the ice”
Finland was a common thread between Piri and Szilvi, for various reasons both of them spent time in the Scandinavian country. “On my wall I have a team Finland jersey hanging that I received from her, it was jersey that she had bought in at the U18 world championships and had it signed by the entire Finnish U18 team however she received one from the team on the last day and she gave me hers, I always found this as a selfless gesture from her” said Szilvi. “A couple years ago she was going to Finland right before Christmas and offered to take anything that I might want to send to my sister, someone who she had never met”
Another former teammate remembered her as someone that was always upbeat, helpful and intelligent as well. “It was always nice to talk to her and her mother supported her in everything that she did. She was in Finland recently with her ‘other family’ where she loved to go but soon after coming back she had to be checked into the hospital.”
She had been through a number of treatments and it looks as if she was on the road to recovery. A couple of weeks ago she had mentioned happily that all the test results showed that she was healthy again and that she was allowed to travel and she would be back on the ice soon. Infact she was assigned to be the team liaison for the Slovenian national team at the upcoming Hockey marathon, just like she had done with a number of other national teams that had visited Hungary. On April 6th she had contacted the federation that it looked like she would not be able to fulfill this duty:
“I have some unfortunate news: I was taken to the hospital today, I have had a high fever for about the last week and a half. I don’t know how long I will be in, I just don’t want to leave anyone hanging so I am letting everyone know right now. I have missed a number of events in recent years I was really waiting to get back to work and I am surprised that I had a relapse.”
Even in the hospital the first thing on her mind was not to cause any trouble for anyone even though she was really anticipating the event and the everyday life of Hungarian hockey.
Sadly we will not be running into her at the Hockey marathon, in St.Petersburg or at the Children's Festival this fall.