Josiah’s Story

In 2019, my son, Josiah, was murdered while en route to a concert at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington State. This is our story. It needs to be told.

I am currently nearing the end of the 2nd draft of my manuscript, Remember the Birds. Below, you will find content related to the book including updates on how the writing is going.

Hello, it’s me again.

I am back at my computer after an eight week hiatus of insanity, joy, revelation and uncertainty while my partner Brian and I picked up and moved cross country, traveling 5300 miles in three weeks from the north coast of…

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by Remember the Birds

Old Photos of You

I scroll through the photos on my phone looking for ones I’ve taken long ago. When that part of me I still am today was alive without the weight I now carry. I can’t believe how far I have to…

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by Remember the Birds

Jurisdiction… Confused? You aren’t alone.

Ambiguous: adj.1) doubtful or uncertain especially from obscurity or indistinctness 2) not expressed or understood clearly Jurisdiction on the Yakama Reservation is a messy topic with no definitive answers. It continues to confuse and surprise me over four years after Josiah…

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by Remember the Birds

Days Between

My experience with grief has been a roller coaster, as I know it is for many. When I look at the bell curve of it all, I can see the progress, the normalcy coming back into my life. The hanging…

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by Remember the Birds

Hope

I have been back from my trip for just eight days now–what a journey it was, both internal and external, through the farthest reaches of the Northwest and of my Heart! 2400 miles were driven in three states through a…

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by Remember the Birds

Reclamation | No Apologies

You know, when I first started writing what will one day become Remember the Birds (the book), we were neck deep in the pandemic, the whole world had changed and everyone was finally at a level of desperation that I…

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by Remember the Birds

Write to Justice?

Can we use words to heal? Beyond the wanting of accountability from others but through the telling of our own stories? Is it a thing? Is it a way for justice to finally be served?

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by Remember the Birds

Pearly White Teeth.

As I continue to plug along with the writing of the book, Remember the Birds, I come across content first shared on my Facebook page. At that time, it was a way to get the feelings out of my body…

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by Remember the Birds

100 Different Answers

I came across a Facebook post the other day from early 2020, just 6 months after Josiah was murdered and while his body was still missing. In it, I said something to the effect of, “You could ask me how…

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by Remember the Birds

Serendipity

It’s December again, the time to come together with people we care about and inevitably, be reminded of those we have lost. I am learning to somehow make it through the holidays, only sometimes I am doing it on my…

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by Remember the Birds
FILE – This Feb. 11, 2004, file photo provided by the Bureau of Prisons shows the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colo. Clockwise from lower left is the minimum security Federal Prison Camp, the high security United States Penitentiary, the maximum security United States Penitentiary and the Federal Correctional Institution. Experts say the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who will be sentenced on June 25, 2019 for smuggling enormous amounts of narcotics into the U.S and having a hand in dozens of murders, seems the ideal candidate for the federal government’s maximum security, “Supermax,” prison, also known as ADX for “administrative maximum,” a facility so secure, so remote and so austere that it has been called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”. (Bureau of Prisons via The Gazette via AP, File)

On the Move…

Hello, Everyone… I am steadily plugging away on Chapter 8 of my memoir. The writing is arduous and yet, cathartic. Finally being able to tell the story of losing my son, Josiah, to homicide in 2019 is liberating. The 40…

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by Remember the Birds

He Mattered

This is a personal account of my own truth according to my memory, perspective and experiences. On Friday, June 7, 2019, my son, Josiah Hilderbrand, was murdered during a carjacking on the side of Highway 97, about thirteen miles south…

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by Remember the Birds

Preface ~ From the Top.

Josiah Michael Hilderbrand was born on a snowy February morning in 1994. At the time, we were living in an off grid trailer in the mountains east of Arcata, California. There was a lot left to be desired about the…

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by Remember the Birds

She’s Back

My goodness… It’s been five years since I abandoned this blog to the farthest corners of my doubtful mind. It’s easy to tuck dreams and ideas away when you just aren’t feeling good enough to achieve them. I started this…

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by Remember the Birds

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