“We just horse-played and joked around together,” she said. Wiping tears while weeping, she described him as “a beautiful soul.”įaith, who said she dated Nathan for almost two years, said they remained friends after they brke up. McElhany said that Nathan was “the epitome of kindness, and the world was a darker place without him.”Īnother friend, Maddison Parker, recalled Nerf gun fights, crazy times on the water slide, and sleepovers with Nathan and her brother. He was always on task, working hard, and lending a helping hand to peers.” “From the first day, he sat at the front of my class. “He wanted to take every science class available,” McElhany said. “He was the best kind of person- so good at being a decent human being.”Īleyah read a statement from Nathan’s Honors Chemistry teacher, James McElhany, shining a light on what kind of student he was. “There’s so much to say and not enough words,” she said. Karriker directed the crowd to look towards scripture to find hope and light in the darkness of the day and asked the Lord to heal everyone’s heart.Ī multitude of those broken-hearted school friends came one by one to the podium to speak about Nathan, the boy they laughed with, played video games with, and shared life.Ī childhood friend from Mexico, Aleyah, was first to share, saying she hoped Nathan was watching and listening from above. “Look at the sky - it’s a beautiful sky, when we come today to celebrate a life that was too short.” “It’s a hard day, but it’s a beautiful day,” he said. Students, teachers, parents, and people who had not met Nathan but wanted to support the MHS community filed somberly into the stadium to the sound of Vince Gill’s “Go Rest High on That Mountain.”Įddie Karriker opened the ceremony by encouraging mourners to be thankful even in the midst of their sorrow. The teen had recently been awarded a $68,000 scholarship by Catawba College, where he planned to major in chemistry, his mother said. Students were sent home in disbelief that a classmate and friend had ended his life so abruptly in their school’s bathroom. Red balloons swayed in the wind in memory of Mario “Nathan” Lopez, the MHS senior who died by suicide on campus on Wednesday, November 10. A large crowd gathered at Mooresville High School’s Coach Joe Popp Stadium on Sunday afternoon to remember a “sweet soul” who touched so many.