Members of the Elon community gathered outside Atlantic Union Bank in Burlington on Saturday morning for the second annual Jogging for Josh 5K. But for most, the morning wasn’t just about running – it was about remembering.
The race honored the life of Elon local, Joshua Dane Hughes. He was the only child of Steven and Juanita Hughes, who organized the event to celebrate their son’s legacy and support a scholarship in his name.
As runners crossed the finish line, they were met with cheers, smiles and warm embraces. Among those waiting with outstretched arms was the Hughes family, hugging finishers, offering thanks and holding space for grief and gratitude. Twenty-nine participants walked the 1 mile path and 59 participants ran the 5K through Burlington and Elon, passing Magnolia Cemetery, Josh’s resting place.
Steven and Juanita still remember the exact moment they met. They were out dancing in Seattle, where they both lived. He asked her to dance as the last song began to play, but Juanita turned him down. Instead, they talked, and eventually, the club closed, forcing them to move their conversation outside, where they talked for hours. That night their story began, a story that would include marriage, military moves, deployment, the birth and eventual loss of their only child.
After having difficulty conceiving a child, Josh was born at 30 weeks Nov. 15, 1992, and died on July 3, 2023.
“He delivered at 30 weeks and he lived for 30 years,” Juanita said. “He wasn’t supposed to make it past birth.”
“He was a gift,” Steven said.
Despite suffering a brain hemorrhage and doctors telling both Steven and Juanita that Josh would likely have cerebral palsy, Josh lived a full and healthy life.
At only four years old, he was the kind of child who gave up his place at a fish tank to a smaller kid without being asked after waiting patiently for his turn, and having only looked for a minute, Juanita said.
“He stepped down, and he let the little boy go up,” Juanita said. “I was like, ‘You don't want to look anymore?’ He goes, ‘No, it's his turn now.’”
“That's how he always was,” Steven said. “Even growing up, he was a very nice young man.”
At just 11 years old, while Steven was deployed overseas, Josh walked on behalf of his father, accepting his MBA from the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business at Elon University, making Josh the youngest person to receive an Elon diploma.
He was the kind of teenager who researched what made people happy for fun. Mapping which countries around the world were the happiest and what in their culture led to that happiness.
“He always wanted to make sure that people around him were happy,” Juanita said.
Through it all, Josh loved learning.
“He'd have been a professional student if he could have,” Juanita said.
He graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill with a double major in political science and religious studies before moving to London, where he got his master's in international studies from the University College of London and a second master's from King's College in War Studies.
It was in London that he met his partner, Jonathan Blackwell. Blackwell flew from his home in the UK to North Carolina to participate in the race and honor Josh’s memory.
“Josh was one of those people that, when you met him, he was so warm and friendly,” Blackwell said. “He made everyone feel like they mattered, and he made a brilliant first impression.”
After attending last year’s and this year’s races, Blackwell said he liked being with people from Josh’s community and sharing stories about the man he became.
“I think one of the things I found as a Brit dating an American was that I love learning about Josh's life and the differences between our countries, but also the similarities,” Blackwell said. “Even though he's gone now, it's still wonderful to learn about Josh's life and hear stories about him from people that have known him for longer than I did.”
Blackwell enjoys learning about the person Josh was as he grew up through the stories of those who knew him as a child, and telling stories about the man he became after leaving Elon.
He was the kind of man who didn’t just study politics. Juanita remembers Josh telling his parents that he wanted to change things, to be the force behind political leaders drafting policies and helping make decisions; his dream was to work in Washington, DC at the White House.
After completing both his master's degrees, Josh moved to Los Angeles, where he got a job working at Space Force Command. That’s when he got sick.
After going to the hospital with what Josh thought was food poisoning, doctors discovered that his heart was failing and would need a transplant.
When he got sick, the Hughes family uprooted everything. They were ready to move to Los Angeles indefinitely, set up a home near the hospital, be there for the transplant, the recovery and the future.
While he was in the hospital, Josh got a call.
“He got a phone call from the White House, they offered him a position to work with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he accepted it,” Junaita said. “That was his dream, and he got that.”
The day before his transplant, Josh was put on a blood thinner called Heparin, a standard procedure. However, the next morning, Josh suffered from Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, an uncommon reaction where, instead of thinning the blood, the Heparin causes clots. The clots caused a stroke, which made Josh no longer a candidate for the heart transplant, just five hours before the scheduled surgery.
This July will mark two years since his family lost him, but in Steven’s mind, it isn’t two years since Josh’s death, it’s two years closer to seeing him again. That’s the way he chooses to count the days.
“I still struggle,” Steven said. “We both still struggle with, ‘Why Josh?’ He was a great young man and I think he would have done even greater things. But faith tells me, we’ll see him again. That’s how I look at it. We’re two years closer to seeing him.”
Through grief, the Hughes family turned to trying to make the world a better place in Josh’s memory. Honoring his love for learning, giving back to the community and running, they established the Joshua Dane Hughes Foundation, organized the Jogging for Josh 5K and created a scholarship in his name at UNC Chapel Hill.
On Josh’s birthday every November, they buy toys and hand them out at Duke's Children's Hospital. On race day, they hand out his favorite candy, Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids. They also display a photo of him running at the start and finish line.
“It’s Josh cheering you on,” Juanita said.
Steven and Juanita said through this experience they learned you cannot survive without a good community and support system.
“It's hard to make it through this life without help from somebody,” Steven said. “The help, support and love that we've gotten from other people will never be forgotten.”
Juanita said their community still supports them like that to this day.
“They continue to support us and remember the difficult days for us, like Josh's birthday, holidays are really tough, and the day that he passed,” Juanita said. They surround us with love, they involve us in their families.”
Some of the toughest days are Easter Sunday and Christmas. Steven went to visit Josh’s resting place this past Easter.
“I went over to the cemetery, and we've got a little bench there for him,” Steven said. “So I sat on the bench, and it was very emotional. It was tough. But then a train came by, and he loved trains, especially growing up. It was him saying, ‘You know, Dad, hey, I'm OK. It's OK. I'm alright.’”
Every Christmas, they decorate his resting place.
“It's hard for us to celebrate Christmas, but Josh loved Christmas, and when I decorated the house, it was always for Josh,” Juanita said. “He loved it so much, he would take all sorts of pictures of it, and so Christmas, I try to decorate his resting place, because that's what he loved.”
Steven ended the race day reading a passage they found in one of Josh’s journals. A passage that brought Steven and Juanita great comfort.
“There’s always something meaningful each of us can do to honor the gift of life in ourselves and the world around us,” Josh wrote.
“That really solidified to me that, ‘Hey, I'm okay, don't worry about me. I'll always be with you,’” Steven said.