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This memorial website was sponsored by Tiffany Farnsworth. It will now remain online forever.
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This site has been visited 2139 times.Personal Background
This web site was created in loving memory of Joshua Robert Fechter who was born on 2-20-1985 and died on 11-17-2006. Josh will be greatly missed by all and will be in our thoughts forever.
Josh was taken from us at the young age of 21 in a head on collision in the town of Fredonia, WI; just days before he was going to move back to California to be closer to his Mom (Dawn) and siblings (D.J., Emily and Hanna). Although Josh loved living in Josh was a big strong man with a heart of gold. He had a very kind and loving personality and got along with everyone he met. Josh could walk into a room full of strangers and walk out with a room full of friends. He loved life and lived it to the fullest every day; Josh would say that the day was not over until he had a little fun, and he did his best to live by that philosophy every day of his life.
Josh loved the outdoors and loved animals, he lived and worked on his families’ farm with his Uncle and loved every minute of it. Josh loved to learn new things all the time; he was always on the move would joke about how he never had time to sleep much less sit down for a few minutes. Some called this type of thinking the inability to finish what you started, but Josh considered it a thirst for knowledge. No matter what he decided to do, for work or play, the one thing he was constant about was it needed to be outside. One of the many passions Josh had in his life was horses. He had adopted a Mustang in 2005; he was wild and Josh was told that he would never be able to train or ride him. But Josh proved everyone wrong; within a few months Josh turned a wild creature into the most kind and loveable animal you would ever come across. That is how Josh was, if you told him that something could not be done he would do everything in his power to prove you wrong, and usually succeeded too. Josh and I had three horses in total and he trained the two that were not broke for riding. It amazed me how he was so patient with the animals, but he loved all of them and dreamed of going into business breading and boarding horses. The one thing Josh never lacked in was passion; if Josh did something he would do it with his whole heart, and that was on thing that made all of us fall in love with him.
One Year Later
One year later you are still gone
One year later and it still seams so wrong
Do you look down at me in the night
The candle I burn that reminds me of you
Do you see my candle burning so big and so bright
The candle I hope that you would burn too.
Not a day goes by where I don't think of you
hoping that you'd come back so the days won't be so blue.
Once and earth angel who was sent up above
You now watch over all those you dearly love
Though sometimes In my mind I forget that you're dead
but I'll make sure you keep living in my head
I love you so much it makes me so sad
that I can't hear you say it back - the one thing that would make me glad.
I know you still are with me; your love is within my heart
Though life is no longer present our souls will never part.
In Loving Memory of Joshua Robert Fechter
February 20, 1985 – November 17, 2006
This Eulogy was written by Dawn:
How does one write a eulogy for your child? It sure is not something what would come naturally; so I will tell you what does come naturally. Loving Josh comes very naturally; every one around Josh loved him. My sister Amey said to me “Josh was the kind of person that could walk into a room full of people, not knowing a soul, and walk out what a room full of friends.” How true that statement is!
JOSH MY GENTLE GIANT, as he was called; was the kindest person to not only people, but to animals. Animals were his life’s passion. Josh was to be moving home this week to One thing Josh hated was school, Josh was given the blessing to stay with Grandpa and Grandma for a year, and go to school here in Josh stole the heart of so many people, but one person in particular was a step above the rest. That would be his former Step-Father and friend Kurtis Bomgardner; Kurtis always treated Josh like his very own son. Kurtis taught Josh how to hunt fish and feed his unending passion for animals. Kurtis helped answer the questions that only a dad could answer. Josh was very, very fortunate to have had the love and guidance of Kurtis. I know that Josh left this earth knowing that his friend; his father, Kurtis loved him like his own son.
Joshua had a love for children; brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, no matter whose child, this 6’4” 200lb man would much rather have sat at the kids table then the adult table. You would always find Josh playing with the kids, no matter what they were doing. One time he even got stuck in the tubes at “Chuck E. Cheese” while playing with the kids at a Birthday party. We had to have him pull his pants down until he was able to slide out of the tube. I am sure if he were here today he would do it again! He would play with the kids and swing them around and wrestle with them but always gentle as a teddy bear. MY GENTLE GIANT!
As his mother there are so many words that I could use to describe this young man, but if I had to pick one it would be “EXTORDINARY!” I was 21 when I gave birth to this 8lb 8oz extraordinary man. He did not want to come out to meet the world, but 50 some hours later we gave him no choice; by c-section he come to meet the world. Josh seemed to always be screaming, some babies cry, he screamed. When he finally learned to talk it seamed he talked and talked and talked, he never had a shortage of things to talk about. You see Josh and I grew up together and because of that we were unusually close as mother and child. Josh always said “I am a self proclaimed Mamma’s boy!” and he was. When I gave birth to my youngest daughter Hanna, Josh slept on the floor next to the couch in case I needed anything. I did wake up and needed to get up and needed some help doing so, but could not get Josh up. He was such a sound sleeper that no matter how loud I screamed he would not get up. Finally I threw the remote at him and he woke up. But that was Josh he had unending love and caring in his heart. My love for Josh runs so deep that I can’t find a word in the dictionary to describe how deep. I can simply say that a very special life has passed from our sight, but NEVER from our Hearts!
The world had lost a warm, loving person, who had made a special difference in every day he was on this earth. Josh will remain in the hearts of everyone who knew him.
As Josh’s mother I am bursting with pride and honor to have been his mother for 21 wonderful years on earth and forever in our after life. I ask that each of you say a prayer for everyone involved in this tragedy.
Josh, if you can hear me now, know I love you and with all my heart and soul. You have made all of us so very proud of you and all you have done and accomplished in you short time on earth. I promise you my child we will all be together again some day, together forever!
I LOVE YOU!
Latest Tributes
One Year Later - As we are coming up on one year since Josh's passing, we reflect on how this year has been without him. When I think of losing Josh, my heart aches and I am not sure that will ever go away. Dawn wanted to come up with a way to commemorate the one year anniversary of Josh's death, and decided to have our version of a candle light vigil, but long distance version. On November 17th at 6PM CST we will all light a candle and talk about our favorite memory of Josh. Please join us in remembering this wonderful life. - from Tiffany
Bring you home again - If tears could build a stairway,
And memories were a lane,
We would walk right up to heaven
And bring you back again.
No farewell words were spoken.
No time to say goodbye,
You were gone before we knew it,
And only God knows why.
Our hearts still ache in sadness,
And secret tears still flow.
What it meant to lose you
No one can ever know.
But now we know you want us
To mourn for you no more.
To remember all the happy times,
Life still has much in store.
Since you'll never be forgotten,
We pledge to you today
A hallowed place within our hearts
Is where you'll always be.
- from Author Unknown
STILL SO HARD - Josh you are missed so much in my life. I look at the pictures of you everyday and wonder why you were taken away. I will never understand it. Know that with every fiber of my being I love you and miss you. I hope you visit me some day in my dreams. I miss you so... Love MOM - from MOM
Precious Loan - God blesses us each with so many things
And sometimes that blessing is a child.
He chooses a special angel, picked just for you
And loans them to you for awhile.
From the time they arrive
They hold your heart in their hands
And add countless precious moments to your life
And each night we bow down and ask the good Lord above
To protect them and keep them from strife.
For this oh so precious gift,
God doesn’t ask a large fee.
“Just love and care for them,
and teach them of Me”.
So we do what we can,
We work hard and we pray
And watch them blossom and grow
With each passing day.
Not one of us knows how long they’ll be here
Or when God will call for his loan,
And take that special angel, picked just for you
Back to his glorious home.
But he made us a promise and I have no doubt,
He will carry you through this great sorrow.
Because when it’s your time, he’ll be first to greet you
And you’ll be blessed with an eternity of tomorrows.
- from Tiff
Latest Memories
Tiff - I have been sitting here thinking about all the fun memories I have of Josh and one of my favorites is from right before he died. Josh and I were driving in the truck and a song came on the radio that he liked. He turned it up and started to sing at the top of his lungs (off key of course) but he didn’t care. He just sat there with a huge smile on his face and if he happened to get some of the words wrong he would look at me and say “Well that’s how I would write it!” and go right back to singing. I loved that because that was Josh, the life of the party and easy going. I miss that so much
MOM - TO many memories to list. If I started I would never stop......
Tiff - When Josh and I lived in California we went camping all the time. Sometimes we would take his brother and sisters. One winter we drive up to the mountains to play in the snow and took his siblings with us. Hanna was only about 3 or 4 at the time and was too small to slide down the hill on her own. So Josh carried her on his back and would slide down with her. He kept on doing this until she was tired, which took a while since he was doing all the work. But he never said anything because it mattered more that his sister had a good time. We also had a snowball fight, boys against girls, but Josh helped us make our fort so it would be a fair fight. Emily still talks about how Josh was willing to help us before he helped himself. We all had a great time and talk about that day often.
Tiffany - My cousin had a memory of Josh and wanted me to put it on the web site for her. Josh had been thinking about joining the military and since I have a cousin in the Navy we took a trip to the base to see how the base life was. One of our nights out there we all went out to dinner at a local restaurant. Josh was the tallest person there at 6'5" and was giving the rest of us a hard time for being "vertically challenged" Tai (my cousins wife) had stood on a potted plant so she could be taller then Josh, and as she did she broke the pot. This was so funny because she is about 5'4" and 100 lbs. For the rest of the night and that weekend Josh was giving her a hard time calling her fat. We all had a great time that weekend and every time Josh and I talked about that trip he brought up that night.
Tiffany - Josh loved the outdoors and loved animals as everyone knew. When he found out that I had an Uncle that breaded and trained horses he was very excited. From that moment he wanted to know everything there was about horses and what you need to breed them. We had taken a few trips up to see my Uncle on his farm. Our last trip was in 2006 a few months before he died. My Uncle had a yearling colt there and was trying to break him for riding. He showed Josh a few tips and then let Josh give it a shot. Within thirty minutes Josh had gotten the horse to not only walk up to him but was able to put a bridle on him. My Uncle was very impresses at the patients Josh had with the animals and so was I. He had a talent working with animals and amazed me every day. He would never give up on an animal even when others would. His passion for horses especially amazed me.