Nate Hershel Nordine

After 22 too-short years that felt like a blink of an eye to his loved ones, Nate Hershel Nordine passed away on April 6, 2024. He is survived first and foremost by his parents, Leo and Molly Nordine, whose shared world became a brighter, more expansive place when "N8" was born on October 29, 2001. From them he inherited an adventurous spirit and a soft, gentle soul - qualities that drew people to him every day of his life and beyond.

Nate was a precocious child who excelled both academically and in such extracurricular activities as aerial silks, a rare skill that saw him performing nationwide with Cirque de la Symphonie by the time he was a mere 11 years old. As naturally gifted as he was devoted to improving his craft, Nate's preternatural abilities were quite literally awe-inspiring. He was also fiercely intellectual, with early childhood fixations on heavy machinery and deep-sea creatures eventually giving way to a fascination with Russian language (which he could both read and speak fluently) and culture. His educational pursuits brought him to such far-flung locations as Massachusetts, Russia, and Monaco.

Nate was the youngest member of his family, but that was far from the only superlative that applied to him. He is also survived by older siblings Heidi, Ashlee, and Michael; aunts Megan, Sue, and Nan; uncles Brendan and Kevin; stepmother Glynis; and a bevy of cousins and other extended family members still processing his loss and attempting to imagine a world without his vibrant presence. It's sometimes said that the stars that burn brightest only burn half as long, but Nate provided so much light that the rest of us will be standing in it for a long time to come.

nate's celebration of life was held august 15, 2024 at the neighborhood church in palos verdes estates, attended by 200 guests from all over the country. leo spoke, followed by heartfelt speeches by uncle brendan baltimore, best friend izzy taulli, nanny and lifelong friend franciane cordeiro, and stepmother glynis ablon. true food provided organic food for the reception, and it was wonderful catching up with so many people we hadn't seen in years. it was a bittersweet but beautiful day.

leo's speech from celebration of life at the neighborhood church:

hello friends, thank you so much for coming. i know many of you traveled very far to get here, so please know it really means a lot to me. i hope nate can feel all the love in this room. when he was a kid we used to come here. we'd run the rocks over from rat beach, climb the cliff and sneak around the garden. he loved this place.

nate was always sui generis. he never once crawled on his knees, he bear crawled with his knees up and out. and as soon as he could stand he was climbing everything. at 2 he was surfing and swimming laps in the pool. in 2nd grade, the week of the talent show, he announced he was in it and was going to sing. this was interesting because he'd never sung before. he composed a song 2 days before the event, memorized it and sang it solo, acapella. thus began his singing phase. on our next road trip to big sur he sang the entire time, 5 hours straight. he kept doing the talent shows, and always tried something new.

he was precocious and witty with language. when he was two we were driving home from a hike in malibu and i was teaching him colors. i showed him two lara bars and said do you want the red one or the green one? he pointed to green, but i gave him the red one to see if he'd catch the mistake. up to that point he hadn't put more than 2 words together, but with a wry smile he replied "i said the green one you kook." i was so shocked looking at him i almost crashed the truck. when he was 9, after molly and i divorced, he signed me up on a dating ap and sent me my profile, which was one sentence long: looking for a woman between 4' tall and 7' tall, between the ages of 14 and 100. sometime later he gave me the greatest gift by serendipitously introducing me to my wife glynis.

nate had many obsessions, and his enthusiasm for each was infectious. when he was 7, during a science phase, our kitchen became a chemistry lab. one day i was working upstairs and heard franci scream. i ran down to find a broken beaker sticking out of both sides of his hand (show w/my hands). there was blood everywhere, like a horror movie, but the big hole somehow missed all the nerves and tendons, and it didn't even hurt.

nate's passion for classical music began when he filmed a live PBS show with david arkenstone where he did a hand balancing act with david's violinist. driving home from glendale after midnight, he said he loved the sound of the violin. the next day we drove up to hollywood and rented one. as soon as we got back in the car he started figuring it out, and by the time we got home he actually sounded pretty good. one by one, we ended up renting most of the instruments from the baroque era, and he learned to play them all.

he did cirque shows around the country and was primed for a career with cirque du soleil (by the way, his mentors are all here). but instead he decided to apply himself academically at chadwick, and went from being a C student with many absences while traveling to graduating from middle school with the academic award given to one boy and one girl.

that's when most of you knew him, the skinny kid with many talents but almost no one knew n8 the last few years. einstein said creativity is intelligence having fun, and that had been nate's life up to that point. but unfortunately, highly creative people can be highly anxious. a traumatic event that summer after 8th grade snowballed into some very bad luck, which led him to withdraw from life and everyone who loved him. many in this room tried to help steer him back on course, but he eventually rebuffed all help. struggling with his sexuality, nate enrolled in the most devout catholic school he could find, college of the holy cross in massachusetts, and then the university of monaco, where he discovered russian orthodoxy. he dropped out and spent the entire summer at my house learning fluent russian, then went to moscow during covid with a fake vax card. upon returning home his room filled with esoteric religious texts, and he started learning hebrew. nate took socrates' quote about "the unexamined life is not worth living" to the extreme, and we had many dialogues on the meaning of life and life after death. our long conversations are actually what i miss most. he was a wellspring of knowledge, i've never been able to talk to anyone else like that.

he rarely presented signs of depression around me, but would matter of factly say that i needed to be a better buddhist, unattached to him, because he was leaving this life before me. there was never any drugs or alcohol. his suicide was carefully planned and scheduled (unbeknownst to us of course), yet he treated his body like a temple. he was actually detoxing until and including the very last day. i believe he was trying to purify his body to purify his soul.

the last time i saw him, we went for a hike. he came shirtless, barefoot and insanely fit as usual. he was quiet, but serene, happy. he stopped several times to watch the ground squirrels and pelicans. when he left he gave me a bigger than usual smile and bigger than usual hug. i didn't know why at the time, but i instinctively didn't want to let go. two days later he jumped from the cliff next door to here.

it's really true that death gives meaning to life. when you think of nate please remember how ephemeral and precious life is. try to live every day with mindfulness and gratitude. hug your loved ones and tell them you love them every chance you get, and appreciate every moment. of course molly and i would give literally anything for just one more day with him, but we're comforted knowing that love transcends physical boundaries. nate lives on in our hearts and memories. he visits me in my dreams. i feel his spirit pushing me forward, transmuting my pain into courage. he is a light that can never be darkened.

he was so special. he had a beautiful mind and a gentle soul. the amount of love molly and i had for him, from the moment he was born, until he passed, to this day, and until we die, is ineffable. nate, every night i go to bed praying for your soul and reflecting on the magical years we had. in many ways you were my greatest teacher. i will treasure our time together forever. i feel you right here with me right now, and all the time. i love you so much.