Beautiful Nathan

Beautiful Nathan

As you know Nathan’s wife, Betty Jo, passed away on Wednesday. My first instinct was to go to Santa Monica and gather him up and bring him home. Steve suggested we wait until we heard from him so we could set up a meeting place, as we never really know where Nathan is living. So he finally called on Friday afternoon and we decided on The Broadway Bar and Grill as our spot. We drove down 5th and turned onto Broadway and just before 3rd St. Steve would drop me off and he would go park. It was Friday night and the place was already buzzin’. So just before we reached the corner, I was about to open my door and Steve stopped me, cautioning to wait as one of the many homeless was walking right by my door. I looked up at this disheveled soul walking past my window. I caught my breath at the familiarity of the man and his dusty belongings. It was my son. My mind raced to find a safe place……………..

We had left not quite 2 ½ year old Ryan at home with Gramma as we raced to the hospital for the second time in 24 hours. I feared I’d waited a bit too long this time and the 15 miles to the hospital seemed endless and much bumpier than the time before! Our second baby was now 8 days late, and it was the latter part of a very hot June in 1977. I just wanted it out of there and into my arms where it belonged! Well we did make it on time, barely. I had desperately wanted a girl this time, but don’t remember one whisper of disappointment when Nathan Jon-Lee Van de Wetering was cradled in my arms for the first time! He was undoubtedly the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen! He was 8lbs 14oz and 20 ½ inches and was perfect! Not like his brother Ryan who was born with a lop-sided cone head and scratches and his face from his very own fingernails with eyes puffy and all but closed. No, Nathan was perfectectly beautiful. All of the nurses came to see my treasure.
He was the kind of beautiful child that people stopped to admire, commenting on his bright blue eyes or curly brown hair. When he was about 6 years old, I would find people staring at him and my pride told me they too, thought he was beautiful even without a word spoken. He had a stocky little body and a curious gate when he walked. He developed quite a vocabulary and had an unusually deep voice for a child as he described things in his very own way. I was putting groceries away one day and there was a line of cans waiting for a place in the cupboard. He stared at them for a moment and said with joy, ‘look, Mama, it’s a parade!’ He could entertain himself so well I ’d get complacent and forget he was in the room at times. At one point I looked over at him at 2 year old, and he had taken all of the labels off the fruit and vegetable cans! But not just the labels, the glue as well! For weeks I’d open a can of green beans and it would be peaches!
At four years old, he was hit by a car as he and several children were playing in the yard. As I heard the car screech and knew something dreadful had happened, I knew instinctively it was Nathan. He had run into the street to retrieve a Frisbee and been struck by a drunk driver. He had been thrown 12 feet into the air and was completely under the car with his little head resting just in front of the rear tire. When I got to him, he was not breathing nor did he have a heart beat. I immediately prayed over him with all of the fervor and memory of everything I had learned over the 30 years knowing God was the answer to all around me. He began to breath with a rasp and his little heart raced. I yelled out numbers to call and took control of the stunned faces around me. The paramedics arrived and whisked us off the Santa Theresita Hospital. Nathan and I spent a week there and both of us recovered with the only scars being on my beautiful boy.
He baffled his teachers with his artistic approach to test takings! Instead of answering the question and filling in the appropriate dot, he made designs with the dots. Not an accurate measure of one’s ability on any level! He loved to take a bath and would go to bed when he was tired whether it was bedtime or not. If he needed to be scolded he would cry as if you has broken his heart, and I would cry too. He named all of his stuffed animals of which there we many. He seemed like he was always contemplating something more important than any one of us could possibly understand.

This was the boy standing outside of my car window. Broken and in shock from his loss. We did gather him up and bring him home and are dealing with this one day at a time. He is homeless, but must be in Santa Monica for court ordered classes. He seems not to be able to grasp what life is suppose to be about. It is hard for me to imagine him being able to pick himself up and lead life in a normal way, whatever that may be for him. Somewhere along the way, my beautiful little boy got lost and can’t find a way back. I pray for him daily and only survive this by knowing God has His hand out waiting for Nathan to grab on……………