This past week, on July 1st, my husband Randy lost a dear friend named Joshua Ragsdale. It has been a hard few days for to watch him go through the emotions, but even harder to read the tweets of Joshua's brother John and have it rekindle feelings of when I lost Adam.
Joshua wrote "Aint Much Left of Loving You" with Randy which is Randys current single and Joshua's first song on the radio that he was a part of. Even though the words of the song do not signify the emotions felt towards loosing him, but the song itself means so much more to me and Randy both as it will always remind us of Joshua!
This past week I traveled with Randy as he played in different cities throughout Florida. We heard the news Thursday morning of Joshua's passing and the whole day all I could think about was how Randy could perform the song that night. With a heartfelt, tearful introduction of sending the song up to heaven and a small break in the middle because of tears and he couldn't get the words out, I realized that very few people in the room knew what Randy was going through on stage.
Joshua was diagnosed with Leukemia and went through treatment after treatment. Being told he had a bone marrow doner and then the donor backing out. Being told one week he would be fine and then the next week the news would change. We kept up with his life through facebook, blogs, twitter, etc as we felt it necessary to leave the time he had left with his family. Randy and him would text back and forth and Randy was always thrilled when he would respond.
It was a tough battle and it times it looked as though he would beat it, but in the end the disease won.
Yesterday John Ragsdale (Josh's brother) tweeted "been planning Joshua's memorial. listening to tons of songs, looking at hundred's of pictures, crying thousands of tears..." After reading that my throat began to hurt as tears filled my eyes and I could put myself in his shoes. I can remember looking at picture after picture, watching video's just hear Adam's voice and crying feeling like "there just wasn't enough time." Joshua was 32 years old. How blessed his family is that they have so many songs that he left behind!!!!
Last week Randy and Joshua's song was 39 on the charts which means Joshua was alive to see his song go top 40. It may not seem like a huge deal, but it is! It is for Randy to know that together, something they did together, will be remembered. I pray that each of you will ask God to be with the Ragsdale family through this tough time as i'm sure many of you have lost a loved one. I also pray that you each will join in prayer with me that this song, Randy and Joshua's song, will be successful. It doesn't have to go #1, it doesn't even have to go top ten, but for the sake that one day Randy can stand on a stage and say "This is for Joshua" and that Joshua's family can be able to experience something so special as hearing the words their son, brother, fiance, cousin, etc... on the radio and they can say "My son wrote that song!" or "My brother wrote that song!"
There are lots of articles about Joshua's fight listed below. Thank you for your help and for your prayers.
