The past 48 hours have been the most heartbreaking, intense, scary, nightmarish turned joyful, loving, exciting, relief-filled moments of my life.
On Saturday afternoon, I was on my daily phone call with my Mom. We had both gone back and forth with “have you heard from Josh” for a couple of weeks. It’s not uncommon for him to get busy and then not return calls. In fact, I had been calling and sending messages for nearly four weeks with no response. I did see that he had been online so I knew he was okay and chalked it up to him being very busy with a move and with his job. In talking to my Mom, I found out that she
hadn’t heard from him since over a week before, just before he was to start a new contract job. I was worried but honestly thought he was just too busy to return calls. Rather than leave yet another message, my Mom decided to take action and contacted one of his closest friends, Kevin, who lives in DC. This is when the nightmare began.
In talking to Kevin, we all realized that Josh had not only cut off communication with us, but also with several friends. Kevin sprung into action and rushed to check Josh’s apartment. Josh’s roommate had been out of town but his Mom was there and
didn’t have good news. She last saw Josh on Monday, September 6
th, just 10am. He was sweating profusely and acting erratic and confused. He asked her where the bathroom was and wanted to know if she had seen his brother. He later had to ask her where he was. He was dressed in sweats and had a backpack with him and left the house with no shoes. He came back a few minutes later and said “oops, I forgot my shoes” and grabbed them, walking out the door again. That was the last person to see him.
Kevin immediately filed a missing person report with the Washington DC Metro Police Department and together with a group of friends started searching. They searched Josh’s apartment and found that he had left behind his wallet. This meant he had no money, no Metro card, and no identification. No one slept on Saturday night once we all realized that he had been missing for five days. In checking his phone records, they found the last person he called on Monday morning at 1am. We were all holding onto hope that Josh was with this person, alive and well, and that he was the missing link. Our hopes were crushed on Sunday morning when we found out that it was merely a missed call and that he had last heard from Josh the previous Saturday.
The good that came out of the call was that we found out that Josh had been very sick. He was supposed to work throughout the weekend but later called in to say that he had a bad case of the flu. Upon hearing this news, the sweating and erratic behavior made more sense. I remembered back to a time when Kevin had the flu. His fever was so high and he was so dehydrated that he began to hallucinate, seeing headlights coming at us head-on when there
wasn’t a car in sight. More is making sense but it was becoming scarier by the moment. He was confused, very sick, and had no identification.
I know everyone has an opinion about social networking sites. I, personally, use them and am a fan but never more so than I was yesterday. I posted a message to say that Josh was missing along with a photo. Within minutes a high school friend posted a
flyer that he had made and that
flyer began circulating. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true; at least 400 people reached out to me yesterday with concern. The
flyer popped up on nearly every person’s profile and I was inundated with offers of help. People in DC began printing and distributing the
flyers, Josh’s friends were able to secure a spot on the front page of a local paper and another friend was able to get a spot on the news. We were overwhelmed with messages from people who knew doctors and police officers in the area. I felt so much love from every direction yesterday. I feel compelled to share the poster. It felt so surreal seeing his picture and information on it.
Kevin (Josh’s friend) and his crew called every hospital in the area on Saturday night asking if there had been a John Doe admitted. No John Doe. On Sunday, with so many people aware of what had happened, several more people started calling hospitals once again. We thought it might be better if we worked on the homeless shelters instead since there were already so many people calling hospitals but we found out that if someone comes in acting confused with no identification that they send them to the hospital. We were back to square one and
didn’t know what to do next.
I had been in front of the computer with my cell and home phone in front of me since the early morning hours. I got an instant message from
Meilina, in Seattle, saying that she, too, was calling hospitals. Her message was “one down, a lot to go”. I thanked her and decided that I had better start looking for a plane ticket. I was about to open another search window when another message from
Meilina popped up. It said “I’m on the phone with a hospital. They said that he might be a patient there”. My heart started beating out of my chest! I was hopeful but also somewhat skeptical. Surely his friends had already called the same hospital looking for him so what are the chances? It was then that her next message came through “His first name is Josh and his birthday is the same but his last name
doesn’t match”. Now I was breathing harder. That is just too much to be a coincidence. Next was “they are connecting me with the patient now!” I
couldn’t even type at this point. I switched places with Kevin and began shaking uncontrollably. Kevin typed as fast as he could “is it him????” Then, our prayers were answered: “Yes, it’s Josh! He has meningitis. He’s okay”. At that point my knees gave out and I was on the floor screaming and crying. It was almost an out-of-body experience. Although I was beyond relieved, I was still asking over and over again if she was sure it was him. She was positive. I got the name and number of the hospital and made the best phone call of my life, to my parents. Upon hearing the news, my Mom sounded a lot like I imagine I sounded a few moments before. A lot of screaming and a lot of tears. He was alive!!!!!!
In the exact moment that
Meilina called the hospital, Josh’s friend Eric was walking up to the desk to see if he was a patient. They told him no, that they
didn’t have a Joshua
Boudreaux but that they did have a
Joshwena Boudle. Eric showed the woman a photo and she was able to confirm that it was, indeed, the same person. So within moments of hanging up with
Meilina, Josh was reunited with Eric and then several more friends within the hour. My parents arrived later that evening. We were finally able to learn how the events unfolded.
Joshua started feeling very sick on Thursday night and his symptoms gradually worsened. The last thing he remembers is taking a bath and he’s not even sure when that took place. We know that he left his house around 10am on Monday morning. At 5pm, a female police officer found him in the parking lot of Catholic University (2 miles from his house) trying to break into cars. He was wearing only a pair of shorts and one shoe and carrying a backpack. She recognized that he was sick and not a criminal and called EMT who picked him up and took him to the hospital.
Fortunately the medical team diagnosed him immediately and a spinal tap confirmed that he did, in fact, have bacterial meningitis. He spent Monday through Thursday in ICU. His doctor told my parents that he was very close to death and that he is very, very lucky to be alive. Josh was barely conscious until Thursday. The nurses were all so concerned about him because he was alone. They asked him if he had family or friends but he would only shrug his shoulders. He was very disoriented and confused. He started to come to on Thursday and realized then that he probably needed to try to get in touch with someone but
wasn’t sure how to. His phone was missing and he
didn’t have any numbers. And again, after the swelling in his brain, he still
wasn’t able to think clearly or to completely process his thoughts.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering why it took so long to realize that he was missing. I explained why it
wasn’t out of the ordinary for us, his family, to not hear back. He had a lot on his plate and warned us that he would be very busy. This
wasn’t uncommon. And his friends? Well, Josh has more friends than anyone I know. They are all in different circles. So if one group
doesn’t hear from him it’s because he’s with another. His social calendar is overflowing so everyone assumed he was with someone else. His roommate? He had been out of town. In talking to his Mom who did tell him about Josh’s behavior, he assumed that he was drunk and nothing more. In all fairness, this is a new roommate who obviously
didn’t know that acting that way is completely out of character for Josh. And work? He was contracting. He did call into work sick but when he
didn’t show up a few days later they most likely assumed that he
didn’t want the job and hired someone else to take over.
Now for an update on Josh. He has lost a lot of weight, somewhere around 15 pounds. He’s very weak and suffering from intense headaches. He’s achy overall from being in the hospital bed for over a week. The doctor
doesn’t have any reason to believe that there will be any lasting effects from the meningitis and is certain that he’ll recover completely. To aid in that recovery, my parents will be bringing him back to Tennessee with them. We are all so relieved that he is on the mend. I think that anyone involved yesterday probably had a moment of thinking the worst. I can’t even describe what that felt like. I know that things will be different from now on. Sometimes out of something very horrible comes a life lesson. This is one of those times.
Josh, being Josh, had been able to find a bit of humor in an otherwise not-so-funny situation. This morning he was laughing about the belongings he was found with. In his backpack he had his phone (the battery was dead) and a plastic ring with a big fake diamond that he got at a
bachelorette party. He can’t figure out why he had to have that ring but
didn’t think to grab his wallet! And last night? Word on the street is that he asked for a beer with his dinner. That makes me smile.
I cannot thank our friends and family enough for the prayers, concern, love, and support. I was overwhelmed by how many people reached out and by how loved Joshua Paul
Boudreaux is. Thanks to all of you and thanks to God and answered prayers.
*As I learn more, I have had to made edits to the original post. The details and specifics are still coming in. We learned that Kevin, Josh's friend, was trying to get in touch with my parents at the same time that they were trying to reach out to him. Kevin had been in touch with some others in their circle of friends and they were all realizing that none of them had seen or heard from Josh. We all realized it at once. We are so grateful for Kevin, Nick, Eric, Traci, Meghan, Rachel, and all the rest of those who lost a lot of sleep and took extraordinary measures to be sure that Josh was found. To say thank you just isn't near enough. My family is indebted to you forever and loves you all!
(As you can see, Talan tried to get in on it mimicking her every move)
The girls did such a great job out there!
Here is the squad with their two coaches:
By halftime the sun was peaking through the clouds. That meant it was time to bring out the pom poms!
The Broncos lost but they were in good spirits after the game and loved running back through the banner.
As the last boy was coming through, the cutest thing happened. He saw Reese, stopped, got very shy, looked over at her and smiled and waved saying "hi Reese". Kevin happened to snap a picture at the perfect moment and captured it on camera.
So cute. We are so excited that Reese is so pumped to be there because we're having a blast with it as well. Being at the game was so much fun! Goooooo Broncos!
