The story of a soldier’s death is a difficult story to tell and the story of Rodney Johnson is no different.

But this Houston soldier who gave his life for his country, helped bring another life into the world Wednesday.

Rodney Johnson came home to Houston on Sept. 12th.

Eight days earlier a grenade attack in Baghdad had taken the young soldier’s life who was just a few more days from watching the next chapter in his life unfold.

“He was due to come home for a visit in three weeks for the birth of his baby,” the soldier’s aunt said.

His wife Ashley was expecting their second child.

“She’s to me, she is a blessing,” Ashley said.

Nysiah Johnson arrived Wednesday, just three weeks after her father died.

“It’s hard imagining bringing up these girls without their father,” Ashley said.

She is grateful to have them during these hard times.

“I think they’re the only thing that’s helping me get through this,” Johnson’s wife said.

She joins big sister Ja’Aliyah who will learn about their father only through stories.

“Just tell them everything that I know about him and that he loved them and he loved all of us,” Ashley said.

And as when any soldier dies, and Rodney was the 348th Texan to die in Iraq, there is bitterness. There is anger for the time he will not have with his two girls.

But at Park Plaza hospital in Houston, grief is also mixed with celebration.

Rodney Johnson may have offered his life for his country, but he also gave his family Nysiah before giving his own.

“Yeah, I look at her as one last gift from him,” his wife said.

Now Johnson’s family needs help. You can help this family by donating money to the Rodney (RJ) Johnson benefit account in the Houston Police Federal Credit Union.