Loss of my best friend Josh

[Mwebb1101]

I miss my best friend and favorite coworker Josh. It all started Friday night, Josh felt sick and thought he was having a diabetic issue so he went home and when his blood sugar was normal he tested for Covid and it came back positive. He took the required five days off and was eager to come back Wednesday even though he wasn’t feeling well. Towards the later half of his shift he was still not feeling good so I sent him home at 7pm. On Thursday he returned to work and was really pale still not feeling well. All day he powered through even though I told him to go home several times. Halfway through his day he complained his chest hurt and he felt he needed to get a chest X-ray after work even though he really couldn’t afford it. I told him to go ahead and leave but he insisted on staying. After a while he felt worse and when he was talking to my assistant manager about leaving early Josh unexpectedly passed out and hit the back of his head on the ground. My assistant yelled for me to come over so I rushed over. Josh was on the ground holding his head and I asked for his password to his phone so we could call his family. He mumbled it then started to have a seizer. He was sitting upright in a fetal position fists clenched rocking and mumbling like he was trying to say something.  I yelled at our store manager to call 911. Soon after the seizure started Josh went limp so my assistant first checked for a pulse then I did but I really didn’t want to know the answer if I didn’t find one. I wasn’t sure so we layed him down. I held his head in my lap so he didn’t hit it on the floor. It didn’t take long before josh started to turn purple. My assistant started chest compressions and another coworker had to take over holding onto Josh because it was too painful to watch. The fire department arrived and started work while I told them all of the information I knew about him. They continued cpr and applied aed pads but the shock didn’t work. I watched until the other paramedics arrived. They then started the Lucas cpr machine and one of his pupils blew. After walking away to take a minute to regroup I walked back over and saw/heard the heart monitor go still and I new he was gone. By this time his mom arrived and they continued working on him until they left in the ambulance. I knew he was gone before they left with him but it was so hard to wrap my head around working with him all day and he was all of a sudden gone at the age of 27. I miss him so much!  

[Valerie Lockhart]

Dear Mwebb1101,

I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend. I hope that you find comfort in knowing that Josh knew that you were a true friend as well. The Bible says a friend sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). I've found the bible's promise of a resurrection to be comforting (Revelation 21:3,4). May you also find comfort in God's promise to swallow up death forever and to wipe away all tears (Isaiah 25:8).