Your messages mean more than we can express. Plans are still being finalized for Josh’s services, and once everything is set, we will share the details here.
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Memories Shared
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5 responses to “Memories Shared”
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James Joshua Hendershot.
Like so many Skagway friendships, it started at the bar.
We met at Moe’s in 2007. I had come to Skagway late in the season, in mid July, and I was leaving Minneapolis for really the first time in my life. It was a big transitional time for me. I had been fired from my first head chef job, and my marriage was ending. We were fellow cooks, hanging out at the bar after work. We didn’t work together yet, but we immediately hit it off. We talked about the usual things; girls, books, music, sports, food, who is a better cook.
Our bar friendship grew into real friendship. We were a lot a like. Big hearted, but with a reputation for being an asshole. Open minded, but with incredible stubborn streaks. Romantic and kind, but sometimes unable to get out of our own way. Generous, sometimes at the expensive of ourselves. Funny, and fun to be around, but maybe sometimes a little too insightful. Did I mention the part of having a reputation for being an asshole? I like to think that we saw something of each other in each other. We just clicked, you know?
We lived together for a while there, either at the Barracks or the Smoothie Shop House (IYKYK) and became even closer. Over the years you became one of a very small handful people that I could tell anything to. I’m often the one that does caretaking for other people, and you were someone that I could lean on, when I wasn’t being too stubborn to ask for help. And you would call me out when I was.
Over the last almost 20 years, you had become an integral part of my life. It’s still so raw that I can barely see the void – it’s being filled with talking to other people about you, tending to them and their needs – but I know it’s there. And I’m not sure how I can fill that up.
You touched the lives of a lot of people, and that mark will never go away. If there is an afterlife, I’m sure you are happy that the Cowboys and Buckeyes both won this week. And that you can see how many people loved you.
I love you Josh. Yoshi, Yosh, Classic Jeremy. I liked annoying you and laughing with you, talking with you and having adventures with you. There are very few people in my life that I have been as close to as I was to you.
May your memory be a blessing to all of us that loved you. I know that it will be for me.
See you on the other side, my brother.
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I worked with Yoshi in 2 different kitchens. It didn’t take long for him to become my ‘little brother’ once we started working at Starfire together. Being that I was the youngest child, I never had a younger sibling. Josh’s talent for finding the things that irritated you & doing them non-stop was impressive! But he would also randomly come up to me & say, “you know I love you, Jessie.” & give me a hug. And Josh gave good hugs.
He would constantly tell me how much sharper his knives were than mine, just to try & get on my nerves. “Hey Jessie, guess what?”
“What?” (I fell for it again)
“My knives are really sharp”, with a shit eating grin on his face.I hadn’t talked to Yoshi since he left Skagway, but I heard about him, what he was doing, where he was, through various different friends up here & fb posts. I wish I’d kept in touch better, as we all do in these situations.
He introduced me to so much good music & for that I’m am forever thankful. Music was so important to Josh, & he had petty good taste.I miss you, my brother. My little brother. Until we meet again.
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Ooooo Josh !!!!! It took me some days to come up here and talk or I guess type. We dated for a few but stayed friends for yrs. You were always such a kind person who loved harder than others deserved. But with all that love you gave out I see many loved you back. Times were never easy but you made it through. God takes the good ones young tell my dad hello and watch over the ones you left behind. Hope to still be your friend when we meet on the other side.
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i knew josh before Yoshi was a thing, so to anyone that thinks me referring to him as his full government is a odd thing… i knew him longer than anyone but blood relatives
there is little space between josh and i when it comes to much. we may have argued what the best song on a particular album was; but we loved the same album. i got him into the drive-by truckers; later he got me into jason isbell. we were cut from the same cloth. a cloth that is becoming exceedingly rare. it feels like a heavy burden sometimes to carry, to be people that love with all their might. not just love other people; but all the beauty in the world.
for those that did not really know him; i implore you not to view this man as a saint.
or a sinner.
just as a man. a man with a wealth of love and intellect. a man that understood loyalty. but also a man that would get scared of his big emotions and run away. a man that feared security because of the vulnerability that it created.we loved him for the strength he had and the parts that fear could overrun. they made him whole. they made him gloriously human
i was looking back through my messages with Josh, and came across some interesting conversations. one in particular where he said something to the effect of when he died, he wanted us to write whatever it was exactly that he died of.
he said “like he fell down some stairs onto a spike that went up his ass so high it punctured his heart.”well, he definitely had a spike up his ass
there have only have only ever been two people that showed me how to expand my heart and demanded of me not to let it shrink or hold it back
josh wasn’t born into any safety. neither was I.
when we met in junior high. i believe it saved both of our lives. when i was forced to go to another school because i caught my house on fire: he ran away from home just to go to the same school.
we were pretty much inseparable for 9 years, except for the small breaks we took when we couldn’t stand each other. but that was just two lost boys learning how to be family.i took every ass beating josh deserved during that time . i was the big brother. no one was allowed to talk shit about him or to him. friends this close deserve fierce loyalty.
josh was funny. he was smart. he could talk trash to anyone, and anyone could catch it for any reason. he loved big. he worked hard (eventually, i have been told… never saw it)
he showed up when i needed him in whatever way he could. i tried to do the same for him. he worried me like a little brother. he caused me great heartache as i did him. but we never didn’t know each other. and we always knew the love the other had for each other. we were family.
i cannot express the depth of this loss.
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Hello, it’s 5:25 am and couldn’t sleep. I came about “Yosh” obit and found it fascinating and funny. At first I thought it was a joke obit. He and his friends and family all seem like incredible human beings. Bless you all and sorry for your loss.
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