i met joe when we were about 7 years old we went to the same school lived on the same block in bramwell wva he was so cute and kind and full of life he got bone cancer when he was 16and had to have his entire right leg amputated i only know some of these things from what he told me joe and his family were devasted as you can imagine but, joe wasnt mad and blamed no one he told me he asked his dr if he could swim after they take his leg the dr replyed sure i dont see why not joe said good because i couldnt before joe said that dr laughed so hard all the way out the hospital roomyou see thats how joe was he took what was dealt to him and made a positive out of it he never wanted sympathy or pitty he adapted to what ever came his way he was such a delight to be around he was funny had you laughing alot he had a beautiful personality and loved engaging in conversation with anybody if he knew you or not joe went through a lot of life threaten issues but seem to pull out of it with his family always by his side joe loved his family dearly he would tell me if anything bad has to happen he wanted it to happen to him and not his family joe was so full of life and felt blessed he was still alive with all his health problems he survived alot that no other person could havebecause he had such a strong will to live having cancer taking cemo for 2 years put a stress on him and his family and still he graduated high school bluefield state college votec and another college in charleston wva he got a degree in eletronics he loved computers and could build them from ground up and fixed a many he was so smart but never flaunted it he was such a joy he always would make sure you were ok and if anybody needed anything he would take the shirt off his back to help you any way possible joe done good for a while but then he got a call from his dr his kidneys had shut down that he would have to start dialysis it hurt him and his family and me his lady so bad but he looked at it like another obsticle he would have to try to get past he tryed so hard to make it work done what ever drs told him to because he wanted to live he still drove hisself to dialysis as much as he could as time went on he kept getting sicker sleeping alot of the days he never missed dialysis he got were he had a fedish for cheeseburgers alot and a lot of the time when he would eat it would make him sick in dialysis he started having heart attacks mini strokes he had to go to roanoke for heart stints he started getting weaker and sicker then he got a place on his foot and we went to the foot dr he had dialysis the next day his foot was all bandaged up so he had an ambulance take him to dialysis he didnt like it he called me telling me about it and then he called his dad talked to him i tryed to call him back but no answer his dad alvin called me said he was in the er it was bad i got there he was in serious shape he went into cardiac arrest and  had brain damage from lack of oxygen for to long joe went into coma he never spoke or moved again and he fought from jan 22 until april28 when he died most people would not have made it the first day of this happening joe was one of a kind and he fought a hard fight most of his life joe is and always will be a winner you done what no man has done you survived longer than any dr said you would you my love are the true winner i love you joe always