Joshua H. Reeves

Wednesday, October 03 2007 @ 10:26 AM EDT

Robertson County Times -- In the span of a day, Leslie Reeves both welcomed a newborn son and learned of the death of her husband Joshua, who was serving in Iraq.

Those who know Reeves - a 2001 graduate of Hendersonville High School who was living with her parents here when she gave birth last Friday - admit little can be said to relieve her grief.

Reeves delivered seven-pound, 14-ounce Joshua Jackson Reeves on Friday at Centennial Medical Center.

Soon afterward she phoned Iraq to deliver the happy news to her soldier-husband of two years, Spc. Joshua H. Reeves. Reeves was stationed with troops from Fort Riley, Kan. and was due to come home in November for two weeks of vacation.

"He got to hear him cry over the phone and said 'Hi' to him," the new mother recalled. A short time after the birth, the specialist, 26, also received photos of his son via the Internet.

"I just wanted him to have seen his son," the mother said. "That was comforting to me." The young mother's joy, however, turned to sorrow on Saturday as a bomb detonated as Joshua Reeves' Humvee drove down a Baghdad street. Leslie Reeves was still in the hospital with her new baby when she learned she was a widow.

"Everyone is just deeply saddened," said Paula Fortner, owner of Hendersonville's American Academy of Dance.

Leslie, who has danced since the age of six, was a former student of the academy as well as a teacher there as recently as two days before her delivery. Her mother, Marikay Burke, is the office manager at the studio.

Fortner said an account has been set up to help Reeves and her newborn son at any Regions Bank.

Pastor Tim Reynolds of Hendersonville's First Presbyterian Church was all set to visit the new baby in the hospital Saturday when he received a call that Joshua Reeves had been killed.

According to Reynolds, Leslie had been active at his church before leaving to attend the University of Georgia. She had even been on the search committee that hired him.

"There's no explanation that can be given when something like this happens," said Reynolds. "It becomes a ministry of presence. They just need to be loved. There are no answers. You just try to be there and show the love of Christ."

Reynolds said Reeves will be buried on Saturday in his hometown of Watkinsville, Ga.

"It hurts so terribly," said Joshua's father James. "You just can't know how bad it hurts."

Three years ago when their son told them he was going to join the Army, the Reeveses were not surprised.

"He wanted to fly helicopters, that was his dream," said James, an eighth-grade teacher. "He went to an aviation school after high school but he decided that joining the Army would get him to that point quicker."

"He was always determined, in everything," James added.

"He was such a good-hearted person. Everybody loved him," added his mother Jean said.

Jean talked to her son last week by phone. Sometimes, she said, he confided to her that he sometimes had trouble sleeping and worried about roadside bombs, the ubiquitous weapons of this war.

"But even so, he was real committed. He had just re-enlisted for six years. He supported his country. He supported the Army. He supported his President. He cared about the Iraqi people," Jean said.

The couple was in Hendersonville Monday, where James nodded to the screen of a laptop computer.

"Let me show you this," he said.

His fingers clicked the keys, opening files until he found the photo he searched for.

Another click magnified the image. Joshua sat cross-legged on the floor of an Iraqi house, a guest for a Ramadan meal. He looked at the camera with a quizzical smile as he held something to eat in his fingers. The specialist appeared to be at ease, among trusted companions.

"Isn't that just absolutely the greatest shot?" James said, chin on his neck, tears flowing unchecked, shoulders bobbing from the sobs.

"We got this last Wednesday."

Now the photo becomes his son's parting image.

In the next room, Leslie Reeves held her sleeping son close.

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