His Keeper

            I’ve known Nate his whole life and he is full of life. From a little boy waking up for Saturday morning cartoons, playing football outside with his friends after school, becoming a teenager learning about girls and playing video games, his first crush and first heart break, and driving a car for the first time. At an early age, I knew he was set to do great things in life and being the kind of leader, you would want to be led by never taking credit for anything and the first to take responsibility for failures. His family consisted of his dad, Derek, a hard-working Janitor, his mother, Jasmine, a lead cook at an elementary school. Julie the oldest and Isabel the middle of the three, but both already in college. They are a ride or die kind of family with loving parents, and Nate being the youngest and the only boy. His family had their fair share of experiencing difficult times. His mother suffered from two miscarriages and lost their 3-month-old son to a rare illness which hit everyone very hard leaving Derek and Jasmine not only questioning their faith but almost divorcing. Julie went into a rebellious phase and ended up arrested for vandalism. Isabel completely shut down and didn’t talk to anyone and almost ended her life. Nate on the other hand was the glue and carried the weight of the worries for his family. With a lot of prayer his entire family was able to completely turn their lives around and were able to face the loss of their brother, Josh, and move on with the thought that they will all see him later in the afterlife. As time went on, Nate decided to enlist into the military on his 18th birthday. Even if it was hard for his parents to hear, they knew his potential and didn’t want to hold him back so they gave him their blessing. When the day came for him to leave for basic training it was hard for his parents to fight back tears because their baby has not only grown up but they had to let him go. Both sisters wrote a long post on social media stating how proud they were of their little brother and how much they were going to miss him.