Today is my friend Nathan Dodd's birthday. Nathan was killed in a car accident on December 26th, 2003. He would have been 27 today. Nathan was a U.S. Marine, a friend, a brother, a son, and a fiance', and most of all, a follower of Christ.
Right now I am at work and trying to decide what stories to share about Nathan. There are so many to choose from. It's also hard to sit and think about all of those stories because it makes me sad. But it is also a joyful experience to remember all of these things. When I think about my Westover Hills Youth Group it seems that no memory is complete without Nathan. Recently I was cleaning out several boxes of letters, pictures and other "keepsake" things. I found several letters that Nathan wrote me while he was at boot camp, for Christmas etc. I also found pictures from different activities and retreats. Hopefully I will be able to scan some of those and upload them later.
One of the first stories that comes to my mind is that Nathan was a great athlete. He played football and wrestled at Lanier High School. On Friday nights our youth group had 5th Quarter at someones house. We would go and eat, hang out etc as an alternative to all the parties that were going on. Nathan had plenty of reasons and invitations to go to parties with friends from school. Instead, he would bring some of his football buddies to the youth group activities. He also started a bible study for the football team at Lanier.
Another thing about Nathan that I love is that it was so hard to be mad at him. He was so goofy and funny that he would make people laugh and forget all about being upset.
I really hope that any of my friends who read this that had the privilege of knowing Nathan will post their own favorite "Nathan Stories".
Nathan and some of the boys in our Senior Huddle
The last thing that I want to add is a prayer for Nathan's family -
"I pray that you will find peace and be comforted even in the midst of struggle and grief. May you be able to feel God's arms of comfort around you each day as you love and miss your son and brother. I pray that you will remember the moments that you cherish so dearly and find joy in them. May you be filled with a joy, peace, strength, hope, and wisdom that could only come from the Father. " You are loved!!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Nathan Dodd
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8 comments:
I think sequoyah is sitting on me in that picture! I truly believe if we all pooled our stories together, we could write a 300 page book about Nathan. More importantly, it would all be positive. I miss my brother Nathan and all the good times we had back in the day. I wish he could fall asleep on my couch so me, hayden and ben could jump him and have him still beat us all up yelling, "PISO MOJADO"!!! Thanks for honoring Nathan's birthday Shiloh. His impact in all our lives will be felt until we see him again.
Peace
Cal
I cannot walk by a Piso Mojado sign with out laughing.
Piso Mojado!? Do tell.
I can not help but remember so many of those 5th quarters at our house. All of you had those other options but chose to spend them in a safe Christlike environment.
One of my favorite memories is the after prom night at my house. Nathan, Clayton Woods, Jason Tims, Cal, Ben etc etc etc In tuxedos! What a handsome group that was!! I think I even have some pictures of Nathan, Jason & Clayton wearing the tuxedos with vests and no shirts. We all had such a great time!
Another favorite Nathan moment will have to be a story that I did not get to witness 1st hand. However David loves to laugh and share this story when we are thinking of him.
It was on the drive to Trek. Nathan had been asleep when they stopped for gas in the vans. While they were gassing up, Nathan woke up and proceeded to tie a towel around his neck and run around the van like superman.
We all love Nathan and miss him. Thanks for posting on this special day.
Nathan found a "Piso Mojado/Wet Floor" sign and stuck it in our huddle room. He would actually walk around with it on his head saying "Piso Mojado" over and over in a hilarious spanish accent. It kind of became a random thing that we would yell....
I can so hear him saying that, Shiloh. Too funny.
Hi Cheri!
I spent a lot of time with Nathan over the years, but my favorite story is when we were at Mo Ranch. Several of us guys were in the room messing around and someone had red Kool Aide packets. So we quickly improvised a prank for the girls. We poured all the Kool Aides into a plastic zip lock and then went down to the river to jump off the cliff. Nathan with a flawless performance jumps off into the water, dumps out the bag and comes up holding his head. A few of us jump into to assist him and the girls freaked. I remember Erika was starting to run for help when we all cracked up laughing, it was classic,.
My name is Sgt. Jason Early. Nathan Dodd (or Dee-Oh as we called him) was a dear friend of mine even though we only knew eachother for a short time. I often think of writing to his family about how I still think of him often. I am running a Christmas trot fundraiser like the one Nathan and I ran around Dec 20th, 2003. We are making crazy shirts like him and I did way back then. Dodd exemplified "the right" in all things he did. I know he watches out for those that loved him. I figured why not google him as I came to work today and am glad to have found this post. I don't think we ever met, but during deployments with Dodd, he spoke so often about you. We went to the range together so I could help shield him from some of the politics out there. They like to mess with junior marines that stand out. Dodd was always 110% in everything and never lied. If he told you something, you knew it was true. A Cpl tried giving him a hard time during a "police call" (trash pick up line) saying he purposefully walked past some trash. Of course, Dodd's hands were full of trash because he would get everyone's before they could. So he sort of cocked his head back with that certain smirk like, "please, you know I didn't do it on purpose". I didn't see it, but knew to shut the Cpl down because I knew Dodd and knew he had done the right thing. I'll never forget that smirk. It was timeless. He was a good man. Please feel free to email. I have some pictures of that run we did.
Sgt Jason "Earlz" Early
Rocky_y2g@yahoo.com
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