Nathan was such a loving and caring young man. He was always helping anyone in need. When he was living with his Dad and I, we would often talk in the morning before he went to work. He would discuss his plans for the weekend and we would talk about the news and his girlfriends. He wore these big bear slippers, I loved listening to him walk across the floor; I sometimes can still hear him !

Christmas 2011

      He liked my cooking which was great because his dad only ate spaghetti. I use to make him my special fudge for Christmas and he loved my brownies. He and his Dad built the barn that also has a small apartment where his Mom now lives. He helped his Dad build our front porch and created a rock garden at the top of the driveway. Every year we decorate it with lights for Christmas. We can look at the glorious lights and it reminds us all of the beauty he left us. Our mail boxes are surrounded by a rock formation, another gift he left his Mom and Dad and me.

     He loved his truck, I remember the boom box that he built to go in the back, and it was very impressively loud ! He would do thoughtful things like bringing me some spring flowers that he had picked not far from the house. He worked for a puzzle making company and brought me one of the wood puzzles he had hand made himself; he left it on my dining room table where I was sure to find it.

      We always celebrated his birthday and I remember one year I made him a chocolate cake. It was to be his last birthday with us. Why I don't know but it failed to rise and so I had to do another. I said to his Dad, “Well, if this one falls, we will just have to put more icing on it !”; it didn’t and we had a great party with his brother Josh and his friend Mike.

     The day he passed away, I experienced something that I have never experienced in my life. Even though I knew he was no longer with us, I could feel him here in the house. He would talk to me and repeat and repeat things like “Tell my sister Becky that I will be with her when she really needs me”. When I touched him in his coffin I felt that he was not ready to leave this earth and that he needed to do more before he left. The day of his funeral, he did not want me to go, he wanted me to go down to the Manna Tree; the name came from a computer game that he liked to play. He had told his Dad and I that he wanted to build a house near it someday.I went back to the house and was looking out the dining room window when I saw Nathan's truck go by on it's way to the cemetery with many of his friends in the back surrounding his coffin. I felt a great amount of joy, and said to myself, “Why am I feeling this way?” Well I was feeling what he was feeling.

      When everyone had returned to the house, I then was led to ask his parents to come down to the Manna Tree and say goodbye to their dear Nathan and to tell him that it was time to go. They did and I can still see them there holding hands and saying goodbye to their precious son, I felt another great amount of joy; it was the joy of their dear Nathan saying goodbye to his loving parents.

     It has been 11 years since our dear Nathan passed away; I know he is still here because every time I see his Mom I feel that I have to hug her for him and then I a feeling of sadness comes over me because he misses her.

He has never left; his spirit will always be here with all of us.

Diane Day

January 2012