Matriarch Kim Plath of Welcome to Plathville has shared details about how she accidentally ran over her 17-month old son Joshua.
The enormous Plath family is no longer as tight-knit as it once was. The family has broken up into three separate households. Now Barry, Kim, and their younger kids have moved into a new home only three blocks away from oldest son Ethan and his wife Olivia. Olivia has taken a significant step back from her in-laws. Micah is now a model and Moriah is dating, and both have also moved out into their own rule-free home. Fans are interested in just how this new family dynamic will work.
Kim Plath may not be the most beloved cast member on the hit TLC show, but she still decided to open up to viewers about how she lost her son Joshua 12 years ago. The reality star's three little daughters took a moment to ask their mother how old their brother would have been. Kim revealed he would have been 13. Joshua would have been their big brother. The fundamentalist mother revealed that the tragic accident happened in 2008. Kim was using her car to move fruit trees on their 55-acre farm, and her 17-month-old son Joshua was nearby. Kim drove her vehicle forward, accidentally hitting her little boy. She told her three daughters, "I had just seen him, and I thought it was okay. But I ran over him." Kim revealed to the cameras that she was eight months pregnant and struggled for a long time. She blamed herself.
Kim said she was thankful that her youngest children have no memory of the pain and want to talk about their brother. She does fear that her older children have harbored anger towards her and wondered if this was part of the reason for the rift between family members. Barry remarked on his son, saying that while the child's passing was premature, he was thankful for the "17 months they got to know a special boy." He also recalled a fond memory of their last night as father and son, where he read Joshua his favorite duck book and would point out all the "duckies" on the page.
The story hit fans hard, and many sympathized with the Welcome to Plathville parents' loss. Both parents acknowledged that while they can't get their son back, they hope that a miracle brings their eldest son Ethan back home.
Welcome to Plathville airs on Tuesday at 10 pm EST on TLC