Trucks. Nate loved a good looking truck. The right combination of wheel/tire size, leveled with the right amount of lift - and if they sounded good too? He would stare and wonder if he should do something else to his truck.

So Nate wanted a truck for a car. When he was getting his driver license, I wanted a truck too. I was often borrowing a neighbors truck for various reasons (thank you Alec, Majd and Greg!!) to pick up stuff at a home store, run stuff to the dump, etc. Not to mention that we have a boat and jet ski that Leslie isn’t fond of me using her car to pull in and out of the water.

So I decided to buy a truck for Nate to drive as his first car. I was always sure to remind the kids that it was Leslie and My car that they get to drive to try to stave off entitlement that can creep in. Nate understood that but it didn’t stop him from wanting to customize it (and improve it quite honestly).

One of those customizations I think nearly every single person knows about - the horn!

Nate wanted an air horn that sounds like the General Lee. I thought about it and decided that would be pretty fun and cool. We ordered the horn and eagerly waited. When it arrived, we were in the garage THAT NIGHT putting it together. It came in a box with all the parts - tubes, plastic horns of different lengths, an air pump, some wires. I still vividly remember we put it all together and attached all the tubes to the horns and the air pump before installing it in the truck.  We wanted to make sure it worked.

Then the moment of truth. We hooked it to a 12V battery to see if it would sound good, wimpy, off key, or what?  We didn’t know what exactly to expect. It came to life and belted out the famous tune to perfection and it was LOUD! We laughed hysterically! We were absolutely giddy! It was so loud that we were a little concerned it would annoy Leslie in the house - so we did it again - and laughed again. I remember looking at each other with amazement - you would have thought we won the lottery. I even have a video of that first blow of the Dixie horn - you can hear us laugh out loud.

We love that horn. Some others do too. Our neighbor up the street asked Nate if he would blow it every time he came by their house b/c it made them smile also.

Rumor has it that it was a wake up call for many a Fiji guys when Nate was involved in early morning work that needed to be done (often as he and Bron did the lots!).

We left his truck in SC for the time being - thought it might spark some healing memories for his friends there. Maybe they will want to just sit in it and reminisce. I know that is what I will do every time I drive it when we get it back to RIC.

Love you Nate and miss you! Hope you put a grin on some faces up there with a loud and appropriately obnoxious horn!

Dear Nate,

The time we shared was brief. I immediately had the impression you had a significant, positive impact on everyone who surrounded you. I've heard so many great things about you. I've prayed for you and your family. I'm so sorry this happened. Even though we didn't share much time together I'll remember you forever. Rest in glory Nate.

One of my favorite memories/stories about Nate takes place on December 16th, 2023. This is likely going to be a long story, so fasten your seatbelts.

My sister, Melissa, played competitive soccer her entire life. During the course of that time, my parents formed great relationships with the families of my sister's teammates. Being that the girls got older and no longer played soccer together, my parents decided to host a Christmas party each year that included the parents of the soccer girls. While this party was mainly for adults, my parents were always happy to let me invite one or two friends. Once I got the green light, there was no question who I was going to ask. With that, I texted the two guys that I spent an unhealthy amount of time with: Joe Ressler and Nate.

I believe the first time Joe and Nate came to this Christmas party was in 2021. I think the main thing they learned that night was that the parents can get DOWN. The three of us always looked forward to it, and I remember how disappointed Nate was when my family was unable to have the party in 2024.

So there is the setup to the story; now to get into the real stuff on what made December 16th, 2023 so memorable. As you can all imagine, Nate was the life of the party. The parents absolutely adored him, and I was so proud to tell them that he was my best friend. I was on aux, and was playing a lot of music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Once a few drinks set in, Nate was dancing with my family and the rest of the parents, giving them all the best laughs. 

My sister Jessie had a great idea for everyone to do haircuts. If you don't know what a haircut is, I'll explain it the best that I can. A haircut consists of peppermint vodka, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup. Whoever is doing a "haircut" sits in a chair and leans their head back. From there, someone will put a bit of chocolate syrup in your mouth, then a bit of the peppermint vodka, and then top it off with the whipped cream before you swallow. Believe it or not, it was delicious. I remember we convinced upwards of 20 adults to do this, and Nate was always at the front and center with the chocolate syrup and whipped cream (I have a picture of Nate doing it for Mr. Schwarz that I will be sure to post).

I got a little sidetracked there, so now to get to the main part of the story. If you know the Mancuso family, you know how competitive we all are. This especially comes out when my brother, Chris, and I play ping pong. Joe and Nate had decided to spend the night, and once all the adults had left and the party had concluded, my siblings and their significant others stayed downstairs to hang out with me, Nate, and Joe. From there, Chris and I decided to play a few games of ping pong. I have always prided myself on being great at ping pong, but for some reason, my brother is on a different level. I always came close but could never beat him, and it always got intense. There was something about that night where I was playing out of my mind. I beat Chris once, and he was NOT happy, so we decided to play again. We played the second time, and he got me. Now it was time for a tiebreaker. At this point, everyone in the basement was very invested in the match, but no one more than Nate. Knowing that Chris always beat me, Nate was rooting for me the entire way. With that being said, I've never seen someone who was so good at messing with someone and getting under their skin. Nate was clowning Chris the ENTIRE game and never let up. Every time Chris hit a bad shot, Nate would say something like, "Uh oh Chris you cant let that happen, man" or "This is getting embarassing to watch". Nate read out the score every time I scored a point, and would start cracking up every time my brother made a mistake. Every time Chris messed up and Nate made a comment, Chris would turn to him and tell him to shut up. In response, Nate would just start laughing and continue to make fun of him even more. Eventually, the game wasn't close, and I secured a one-sided victory. After my final point against him, Chris slammed his paddle on the table, breaking the paddle in half and putting a huge dent in the table. He then left without saying a word and went up to his room. As soon as he left, me, Nate, and everyone else downstairs started crying with laughter. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Chris said something along the lines of "Tell Nate to never talk to me again", just to then see Nate in the morning and tell him how much he loved him. We ended that night with countless laughs and stories, and watched a movie before Nate fell asleep 5 minutes in.

I love this story so much. I have always loved how comfortable Nate was with my family and how my siblings always viewed him as their little brother. Whenever we were on college break, my siblings would ask me when Nate was coming over. They loved him so much, and I always took so much pride in that. I love you and miss you so much Nate. These last two weeks have been so hard, but I know you will give me strength. I know you and I had some intense ping pong matches ourselves, and I can't wait to play another one when it's my turn to join you in heaven.

Sometimes life goes in a circle. Sometimes small circles, sometimes big circles. Our Nate has now provided us an ironic one.

When Nate was a baby, he wouldn't let many people hold him. In fact, he was pretty stubborn about it and there were many times when only Leslie could hold him. The irony was thick in this situation because with Grant (our first born), we read lots of books and one of them instructed new parents that you should let your baby learn to fall asleep on their own.  You should not rock them to sleep, that was bad for some reason. Leslie followed that diligently much to the dismay of grandparents (and some friends probably).

Every parent goes through the loosening and changing of rules as you have more kids. You begin to realize that some things you thought were important and critical, really aren't that big a deal. It begins to sink in that kids are raised a thousand different ways and most of them turn out pretty darn good.

Fast forward to Nate.  He seemed suspicious of the world other than his mom. His look was always so serious as a baby/toddler.  We used to joke that he was solving all the world's problems because of the look on his face.  He didn't look scared. He wasn't smiley as a baby (hard to believe now). His face and eyes had a "gears are turning" look like he was figuring things out.

Anyway, with Nate being our second child, Leslie was often tired and exhausted and just wanted Nate to take a nap or go to sleep at bedtime. I was off at work most days and Leslie often had friends or grandparents around. She had moved far away from the "nobody can rock him to sleep" idea and was begging Nate to let someone else hold him and/or rock him to sleep. What did Nate think? NO WAY! You better not hand me to someone else! He would throw a fit and get really upset most times. So most of our baby pics of Nate being held by someone - you got it, all Leslie.

Fast forward 20 years. Leslie (and I) would give anything to have Nate in our arms.

We know we aren't the only ones.

We love you and miss you Nate! We will hold you again someday!

PS: Thank you all for continuing to add stories to this! I get tremendous joy out of reading them.

I have so many stories to share about Nate, and I can't wait to share all of them. One in particular takes place either freshman or sophomore year of high school (I will try my best to get all the details right). Richmond isn't known as a place that gets a lot of snow, but occasionally we get lucky with a few inches and some days off from school (Henrico County is terrible with snow). One week we were lucky enough to get somewhere between 3 to 5 inches of snow, and Henrico County schools were shutting down. While most people used schools being closed to do things like lie in bed, go sledding, or stay warm watching movies, Nate, being the go-getter he is, had the idea of shoveling driveways for some money. With that being said, he rallied up the troops! He reached out to me, Joe Ressler, and Charlie Stahr. I can openly say that if anyone knows me, they know how dumb it was for Nate to include me in anything relating to manual labor. We went off to a Wyndham neighborhood and got to work. The goal was to shovel as many houses as we could and maybe scrape a couple hundred bucks to split amongst the four of us. Being that it was Nate's idea, and the fact that he had a snowblower, he was the main leader of the operation. He sent the four of us to opposite ends of the neighborhood, where we knocked on doors and asked people if they wanted their driveways shoveled. I can comfortably say that over the course of a few hours I got zero people to say yes, while Nate got about 80% of our customers. When we finally got a house, we got to work. From there, I got to see the business side of Nate, and boy was it scary. Like I said before, Nate asking me to do manual work with him was a huge mistake. Whenever it was time to do a house, I'd do as minimal work as possible and complain the entire time. Whether it was my shovel not being good enough, my hands being too cold, or being too tired, I complained. Nate was as patient with me as possible, but eventually my shovel snapped midway through working on a driveway, and I just stood there like an idiot. Nate finally had had enough of me, and looking back on it, I can say it was one of the funniest experiences of my life. Nate was genuinely dumbfounded with how difficult I made such an easy task look, and he let me hear it.

I love this story for so many reasons. For one, Nate's ability to work his butt off and always look to keep himself busy was so inspiring. If not for Nate, I would've stayed in bed and wasted that day. Second, Nate's love for spending time with his friends and including us whenever he could was so special. Third, Nate's ability to convince so many people to say yes to getting their driveways done shows how personable he was and how good he was at talking to people. Fourth, Nate's ability to lead us and plan everything shows how intelligent and organized he has always been. I know shoveling driveways sounds simple, but when you include lunatics like me, Joe, and Charlie, it can get a bit hectic. Lastly, his humor and patience in keeping a smile the entire time, even when I was busting his chops, show how much he values his friends and showing love to others.

I always have loved this story and can't wait to share the many more that I have. I love you so much Nate and will miss you always. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you proud, and per request of your dad, I will try to learn some situational awareness (story for a later time).

Although I hadn't seen Nate in a little while, every time we hung out it was always the best of times. I remember freshman year of high school after they canceled all winter sports and I was like maybe I'll try out for volleyball. I had never played before and was god awful but I reached out to Nate one day if we could meet up and he could give me some pointers. Immediately he texted me back "Dude yes, pick you up tomorrow?" The next day he picked me up and I proceeded to shank probably 50 balls in a row yet Nate stayed positive and encouraging the whole time. He worked with me until I had a solid foundation of the basic skills and thanks to him I made the team. One of the funniest memories I can recall with Nate was during my sophomore year during the middle of our covid season. We all had to wear masks and the bleachers were marked with social distancing stickers 6 feet apart. After tip toeing around several rows, Nate constructed a 6 sticker masterpiece and stuck it on the back of one of the coaches soundlessly. It was quite impressive I won't lie. Last year, when I still was unsure where I was wanting to go to school, Nate had me down to South Carolina. He picked me up, gave me a way better tour than anything admissions attempted, and spent the day highlighting all the cool parts of the city. We ate at Jack Browns which definitely lived up to the hype and just talked about life. I can't thank him enough for all the ways he was instrumental in where I'm at today. 

Miss you man, Jack

Last summer, our family took a trip to Key West. We spent our time there exploring the different parts, spending a couple days at each of the three/four islands we visited. I remember one of the nights so vividly. We had just finished playing a game as a family and my parents had gone to bed. My brothers stayed up a bit later to discuss the groundbreaking topic of the night- soccer. G had really been into it throughout college and that love has only grown, so I remember listening to him talking to Nate about it.

Anyways, time goes by and Grant goes up to bed. I follow shortly behind, but Nate wants to stay up a little bit later to hang out on his phone (he had also been drinking, so he was a little tipsy and not quite tired yet.) My bedroom was the only one downstairs next to the living room/kitchen area, so I faintly heard the TV as he watched for a little while. Once it went quiet, I snuggled up in my bed, assuming he was going to bed.

Well, I was wrong. Immediately, Nate opens my bedroom door and (without even saying anything) sat on the foot of my bed. At this point, I knew sleep could wait, as I didn't get the opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Nate very often.

I am so glad I stayed up to talk to him. We chatted about anything you could think of, but our biggest topic was how lucky we were to be a family. Despite the bickering between my brothers, and the occasional nagging from our parents, we both knew that our family was incredible and we wouldn't trade it for anything. He ended up calling Bella, because I'm pretty sure I didn't know her yet at that point, and I got to talk to both of them.

It was so fun, and memories like those are what make me the happiest to remember.

I love you Naterbug!

Growing up, my family snow skied.  Upstate NY in the winter - you had to have something to do! I learned at the age of 5. I have loved it my whole life. Fast forward ~30 years and I wanted to share that love with my kids so I got them on skis early. In fact, my father was with me when I was teaching the boys.

The boys took to it and loved it like I did.  Nate switched to snowboarding one year (another story) and I learned with him. Nate never went back to skis - snowboarding was his style.

Jump to 2023 and Nate and Grant happened to have the same spring break for UVA and USC.  I knew I couldn’t pass that up so I planned a trip to SLC, Utah to enjoy some of the best skiing on earth with them! We asked my brother to join so it could be all the “Baker Brothers”.

You may not remember 2023 winter.  However, they do in Utah - and not because the Baker boys went out there. It was a record year for snow. I have been skiing for almost 50 years and, due to the Navy, I have skied in Europe and many places in the US - I have never seen so much snow.  Roads up by the resorts were plowed like tunnels with the snow banks having sheer walls that were several feet taller than us.

It snowed so much overnight the day we arrived that they closed the road to 2 of the major areas due to avalanche control.  We almost didn’t find a parking spot on day 1 - Steve dropped off Grant, Nate and me at Brighton and started to drive back down to the base in hopes of catching a bus up.  He found a spot as he left and soon joined us.

While we were there, it snowed about 30 inches (3 days). Our last day was at Snowbird and due to the parking risks, we were there early for first chair. It was a surreal day. Normally you hear scraping and noises as people turn and ski over groomed trails and some inevitable icy spots.  Not this trip.  It was dead silent there was so much snow everywhere. You only heard your boots squeaking, conversation, whoops and yells, and the ski lifts.

We decided to head up to the very top after an hour or so (the ski areas are huge so you can’t ski it all in a day). As we got off the lift, Mineral Bowl is right in front of us.  As it turned out, it had been closed for the past 3 days due to the amount of snow and avalanche control reasons. Well, they had just dropped the rope and opened it about a minute before we arrived there.  Hundreds of acres of untracked powder lay in front of us and it was open! We looked at each other dumbfounded as a few people had just started to ski down it - we could hear their yells and whoops.  We dove in and headed down it and it was incredible.  Grant and Nate hadn’t ever skied that much powder and I have only a couple times in 50 years. We were giddy and yelling to each other and laughing with elation.  Absolutely one of the most incredible experiences of my life skiing those next few runs with Nate, Grant and Steve. I think everyone on the mountain headed to that bowl because the other thing that happened is the lift line got enormous - extremely rare for out west. After skiing several runs, our last lift line wait was over 1 hour. We laughed it off and went to other parts of the mountain - the entire mountain had incredible conditions.

Just wanted to share another experience with Nate that we will all cherish for the rest of our lives.

Love you Nate! Hope the powder is deep up there!

To Nate and the Baker family:

I can’t exactly remember the first time we met the Baker’s, but I do know that they were one of the first families that we became close friends with. The first memory I recall is when we had the Bakers over for Easter Sunday and we did an Easter egg hunt in our backyard when the kids were itty bitty. I can remember Grant and Nate wearing khaki pants and light blue sweaters. Les always dressed the boys to a tee (and not to leave Dan out, but I’m sure Les overruled Dan here on their attire!) I wish I could find the picture, but anyway that was the beginning of years of friendship and family gatherings.

We spent many memories at Lake Anna with the Bakers, from adult only weekends to the great 4th of July family weekends. The Baker boys were always lending a hand with Dan getting the boat ready for cruising, tubing, or wake boarding. Nate though was the first to pick up a pole and fish with Shane Jr. off the dock. Nate also was the first one that got Shane Jr. up on a wake board together with him. (Dan posted the pic). Then just 2 years ago, Nate sat on the back of the boat and coached both Shane and my nephew on how to wake board on their own! Boy did Nate make 2 little boys have grins from ear to ear when they were standing riding those waves on their own. Nate was always encouraging, happy, smiling, and willing to help others enjoy their life. He could put a smile on anyone’s face. Shane and my nephew had the best weekend spending time at the Bakers, as we all did. My nephew who lives 10 min from the beach in Florida was wanting a do over the following year! Asking if he could come back to Virginia and we could go to the Lake again. Nate left an impression and a memory those little boys will never forget.

Moving on through life, spending more time with Les during the days, I would be on speaker phone with Nate too, as he would always call. I would hear stories about the fraternity tent getting mangled from the storm, the parties that they had, or just to call and check in and see what was going on. Nate was always full of life, the one that could fix anything (a trait Dan taught him), a go getter (writing in a notebook at a young age - a book of inventions) and very respectful and polite to everyone he encountered. The Bakers are a special family and they raised their children well.

Nate, God has a purpose for all of us and you really have left an impression on many. You are a special soul. We will miss the everyday life with you, but your legacy will live on forever and you will always be in our hearts. We are thankful to have known and spent time with all the Bakers and will always be here for whatever y’all need.

We live in a life of constant changes, challenges, and unexpected events. We should all take a page from Nate’s life. Love one another and love your neighbor as yourself. I hope that your tribute will make others want to be more like you!

We love you all! Carrie and Shane Pierce