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You can love someone deeply and still be powerless to save them.

Josh spent years serving his country.

Then he found himself facing a battle he couldn't solve with training, discipline or determination.

His wife and best friend, Corey, was struggling with alcohol.

What began with increasing alcohol use eventually became serious physical complications, hospitalizations, mobility loss and a year-and-a-half journey in which Josh became not only a husband and father—but a caregiver.

He tried to help.

He tried to reason.

He tried setting boundaries.

He sometimes wrestled with resentment, guilt, helplessness and questions about whether he could have done something differently.

All while serving in the military and raising their young daughter, Carmen.

Eventually, Corey's health deteriorated significantly.

After a cardiac arrest at home, Josh performed CPR before emergency responders arrived. Corey was later placed on life support, leaving Josh and her parents with an impossible decision.

She died April 7, 2022.

Days later, Carmen turned five.

Then, only two months after losing his wife, Josh lost his father.

In this deeply honest episode of the Solo Dad Podcast, Josh and Matt talk about grief that begins before death, caregiver exhaustion, addiction-related loss, parenting through trauma, asking for help and what happens when the person you desperately wanted to save could not be saved.

But this conversation isn't only about what Josh lost.

It's also about what he decided to build afterward.

Today, Josh is retired from the military and studying to become an educator. He volunteers in schools, mentors children and has discovered that one of the most meaningful ways he can carry his experiences forward is by serving others.

As Josh explains:

“You're gonna go through some pain in your life. It's about what you do after.”

In this episode, you'll hear:

• What it's like watching alcohol slowly change someone you love
• The resentment, guilt and helplessness caregivers can experience
• Why Josh eventually had to ask Corey's family for help
• How the military supported his family through Corey's declining health
• Becoming a caregiver while also remaining Dad
• Performing CPR on his wife during her final medical emergency
• Losing his father only months after losing his wife
• Parenting a five-year-old through the death of her mother
• Why children need age-appropriate honesty about grief
• The importance of reassurance and emotional safety
• How therapy helped Josh and Carmen communicate their feelings
• Why asking for help isn't weakness
• The role physical movement can play in reconnecting with yourself
• Why grief can reveal entirely new layers years later
• How Josh found renewed purpose through education and mentoring children

THE CLIMB CONNECTION

C — Courage

Josh eventually had to admit:

“I was helpless.”

That meant having difficult conversations, asking his in-laws for help, confronting Corey's declining health and later allowing himself to seek support for his own grief.

Courage wasn't fixing everything.

Sometimes courage was admitting he couldn't.

L — Learning

Josh learned that grief doesn't reveal everything at once.

His description is powerful:

Grief is like an onion.

Something that didn't emerge two years ago might surface today.

Learning means remaining curious about those emotions instead of assuming something is wrong because grief has returned.

I — Integration

Josh isn't trying to erase Corey from his life.

He talks honestly with Carmen about her mother, what happened and why h