Helping Me To Deal With…..

I started working on this memorial site to help me to deal with the sudden tragic death of my eighteen year old grandson, Josh.

Josh died in an auto accident on December 29, 1997 in northern Wisconsin. Josh was born on March 20, 1979 the son of Rick and Vickie Bell. My very first grandchild!

How happy and proud we all were of this perfect little bundle of energy! I was convinced that nobody ever had a more perfect grandson than I!!

When the phone call came, I thought I would surely die, I could not breath for what seemed years! This must be a mistake! But it was really true. We would never see Josh as a full-grown man, never know the pride and joy of holding his children. All we had left were our memories of Josh. Happy memories, sad memories. Memories of things we wished we’d said and done. Memories of things we wished we had not said and done. So many memories!

When he was a little boy, we joked that we never had to worry about Josh talking to strangers. He never saw a stranger!

So many many teenage friends attended Josh’s funeral. It was very heartwarming to see. Many placing mementos into the casket, giving a rose to Vickie and Grandma Fannin. I can’t even begin to imagine the depth of suffering that Rick and Vickie have gone through.

My hope is that building this site in memory of Josh will help all of us to accept, and remember how much our lives were enriched by having Joshua those few short years that he was loaned to us.

(From “Let’s Remember Joshua” by Hazel Clark (1940-2002), copied by Carl Wayne Gray)