Nathaniel "Bubba" Bernal

Our precious beloved son Nathaniel Lee “Bubba” Bernal, 29, left this world and was received into the loving arms of Jesus on April 25, 2015. He was born at Shawnee Mission Medical Center but at the age of 7 weeks, moved with the family to Watkinsville, GA where he lived for 12 years until we returned to make our home in Lee’s Summit. Even as a child, Bubba was amazing in just about everything he did. His intelligence was way beyond what most of us ever hope for. His athleticism by far exceeded the norm. His sense of humor and fun loving mischievousness caused others to be drawn to him. He was gifted also with a natural born charisma and phenomenal leadership abilities. His strong work ethic was an important character quality to him. He was a loyal friend to so many and a loving brother to Michael, Joshua, Matthew and Sarah. He made the decision as a young child to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior and his unwavering faith defined his life. He had a heart for those who needed to know about the free gift of salvation offered by our Lord, and he shared his faith with boldness and passion. He went through some difficult, rebellious years in high school but with determination and a sense of purpose he worked hard to overcome and was building a wonderful life for himself. He was a 3rd year pipe fitter apprentice with Foley Co. which was a career path that allowed him to exercise his awesome mechanical abilities, working with his hands but also using the incredible mathematical ability that was God given. He was a member of Pipefitters Local Union 533. Besides his siblings he leaves behind his parents, David and Stephenie Bernal; paternal grandfather, Jose Bernal; maternal grandmother, Trudy Kurtz; sisters in laws Casey Bernal and Sarah Davis Bernal; his very special friend Leigh Ann Morales; and two nieces, Elsa and Penny. He also leaves behind many aunts, uncles and cousins as well as more friends than we can even begin to count. God blessed us beyond belief with the most amazing and incredible son! It was always our privilege to be Bubba’s mom and pop. Our family is forever changed. We will miss him dearly, but we look forward with great anticipation to that day when we are reunited in eternity. Until then dear Bubba, this is not good bye, this is just until we meet again. Visitation: McGilley Chapel, 12301 State Line Rd, KCMO, Tues. 6-9. Funeral: Tri City Baptist Church, 4500 Little Blue Pkwy, Independence, MO, Wed. 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to NorthCare Hospice or Faith Baptist Church.

God gave us words to communicate our thoughts, but how do you tell the incredible story of a life that spans nearly three decades? No matter what we say here today, it will never be enough to express what’s truly in our hearts. Words just can’t adequately convey understanding of the preciousness of the gift that our Bubba was to our lives. But that won’t stop us from trying.

Bubba's Eulogy read by his mama at his service:

The best way to tell the story of Bubba is to start at the beginning. He came into this world a full two weeks early. I gave birth on a Sunday morning with my sister in the delivery room. I had just seen my doctor on Friday and had explained to him that David was at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA for another whole week. I was worried that the birth could happen without him. The doctor assured me that wasn’t the case, so when I went into labor in the middle of the night the very next day, naturally I assumed it was false labor. Based on that inaccurate assumption, I made it to the hospital just in the nick of time! Bubba was born just 20 minutes after we arrived there! David saw his son for the first time five days later after his graduation from the Academy.

Bubba took his first plane ride about three or four weeks later when he flew with us to Georgia where David had been assigned as a new agent. The Bureau sent us for a house hunting trip. Josh had to stay behind with Grandma and Grandpa, but there wasn’t any way to leave a nursing baby for 10 days so Bubba went with us. We wound up moving to Watkinsville, GA a few weeks later when Bubba was 7 weeks old.

Bubba lived the first twelve years of his life there. As he began to grow, we learned fairly quickly that he was a pretty extraordinary little guy. He was climbing the stairs in our home by 5 ½ months old and spoke in whole sentences at the age of 15 months. We also learned that he was a very strong willed child with a definite mind of his own. One of my first indicators of that was at 9 months old when he decided one day that he was through with the whole breastfeeding thing. He quit one day and refused to nurse again no matter what I did! He had an amazing amount of energy too as a little guy. I always felt lucky if I could get him to take a one hour nap every day. This was quite a change for me since Josh totally loved sleeping. That child would nap two or three hours in the morning and at least another couple hours in the afternoon! Trying to get them on the same nap schedule was a challenge I lost a lot more than I ever won.

Bubba came along 17 months after Josh was born, and Matthew followed almost 3 years to the day later. Having 3 little boys in 4 ½ years kept me REALLY busy as a stay at home mama. The boys had a lot of energy and when they put their heads together they could be so mischievous! I’ll never forget the time David and I were watching the evening news after he got home from work and we suddenly noticed that the boys weren’t around. A few minutes later we heard the sounds of gleeful laughter coming from the kitchen. When we went to check it out we found the boys had somehow managed to get into the fridge and had poured milk all over the kitchen floor to create their own indoor slip and slide!

School days followed in no time at all and Bubba, like his older brother, tested into the gifted program. School and learning always seemed to come so easy for him. I used to think he had a photographic memory because it seemed he rarely had to study anything more than once and he always had excellent grades. At one point in his young life an IQ test put his score in the 140 range.

As Bubba went through elementary school many of his other talents also became known to us. He had such a charismatic personality, even as a child. He was one of those people who never met a stranger. People were drawn to him and he just seemed like such a natural born leader. Even in elementary school it seemed like everyone knew him and everyone liked him!

Around that time he also began playing little league baseball and soccer. He was unstoppable on the soccer field. His ability to run and run and run and not stop was just amazing to everyone! I often thought of him as the energizer bunny! He just never seemed to be out of breath. Likewise on the baseball field. It was so fun to watch him play because he really was a skinny and scrawny little guy with an absolutely HUGE glove. He had a glove that he literally had to grow into, but it served him well. He could scoop up anything and everything that came his way! He could also accurately throw the ball like a rocket, even when he was only playing tee ball. As the years went by he played many positions from first base to shortstop to outfield to pitcher. He was a lefty and played positions that some people thought a lefty shouldn’t or couldn’t play, but that was before they met Bubba.

Bubba seemed to develop quite a passion for baseball and soon gave up soccer. He had a competitive spirit that inspired him to want to put in a lot of hours of practice and drove him to always want to get better. Bubba was lightning fast on the bases and he was quite a persistent hitter too. Though he excelled on the field, for the most part he had an amazing ability to stay humble about his giftedness. It was his mom and dad who would brag about him, being the proud parents that we were! There were many years of little league play that he was chosen for the all-star team, even when he played with boys a year or two older than he was. Bubba was one of those kids that no matter what team he played for we always heard praise about his skills and athleticism from his coaches. And then we’d brag some more!

Bubba’s abilities in sports seemed to grow with him. After moving to Lee’s Summit, a much larger community and school system than the one we came from in Georgia, he made the Junior varsity baseball team at Lee’s Summit High School the first year he went out. Of course with his competitive nature he wasn’t satisfied with that accomplishment. A few years after high school, his dad convinced him to try out for the T-Bones club, even though he hadn’t played in a while. Out of the 70 to 80 people that came out for tryouts, he was the last one cut from the competitive tryouts that year. They invited him back the next summer but by that time, he began to take a different direction in life and decided there was no longer room for baseball.

He got into MMA fighting for a while, slightly inspired and encouraged by Josh’s passion for that sport I’m sure, and of course he took his competitive spirit right along with him. At one point all three of our sons were MMA fighters. Though I admired the discipline it took to train and how very seriously they took that training and the sport, I didn’t like fighting and was never able to actually go see any of them fight. I do remember one night when both Josh and Bubba were fighting and they both got their foreheads split open and had to have stitches at ringside. Needless to say we were happy when he decided to give up fighting.

Bubba couldn’t get completely away from any type of athletic pursuit however. That just seemed to be an inborn part of who he was. He so very much enjoyed playing on numerous softball teams as a twenty- something young man and once again from what I’ve heard from others, he really excelled at it! A fairly recent thrill for him though was when he was able to go skydiving with some friends. The exuberant thrill he described to me from that experience was unlike any he’d known before. He also loved canoe trips, hiking and just being outside in the woods, as well as golfing with friends or family.

Bubba was a third year pipefitter apprentice with Foley Co and a member of the Pipefitters Local 533 union. His Tio Ed is credited with inspiring him to go to welding school and apply for an apprenticeship. What an amazing career fit this was for Bubba. He truly was mechanically and mathematically gifted, two skills that fit perfectly with this career choice. He was proud of the sense of purpose being a good pipefitter brought him and it was always extremely important to him to do the very best job that he could do. His strong work ethic was a testimony to his character

Despite all of these things, what I found most remarkable about our Bubba really had nothing to do with his intelligence or his athleticism, and everything to do with the strength of his faith, his moral compass that always gave him a very clear understanding of the difference between right and wrong, and his compassion for people.

As a boy of about 10 shortly before we moved back here from Georgia, Bubba was inappropriately touched by a substitute teacher at his school. He immediately recognized that this was wrong and notified other adults at the school. He also told me about it when he got home from school that day. He was very adamant in his description of what had taken place and what the intent of this man had been. Of course we contacted the school immediately. By the time an investigation was conducted several months later however, this individual had left our school district and had landed a full time teaching job in a nearby district. There his behavior escalated and he wound up molesting several students. Eventually there was a trial and Bubba was one of only a handful of the children who had the courage and ability to come forward and testify on the witness stand in a court of law. He did an exemplary job with his testimony, resulting in a 60 year prison sentence. It was amazing how Bubba held up under those circumstances, even the defense attorney couldn’t get him derailed with his questioning. David was allowed to be in the courtroom and afterward he got very positive feedback on the job Bubba did from everyone including the prosecutors, detectives and even the judge. As a law enforcement officer and as a father, David beamed with pride once again. Bubba became my hero as well, and I wrote an anonymous letter to the local paper telling him and everyone else so.

What really defined Bubba’s life however was the strength of his faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. When Bubba was about five years old we started going to church as a family. He always enjoyed going to Sunday School, vacation Bible school and the Awana program. He was particularly good at memorizing Bible verses and soon had a very clear understanding of the gospel message. He made a decision for Christ and was saved. After his salvation almost from the beginning, he began fervently sharing the gospel message with anyone that he thought needed to hear it. One day I remember a new family moved into the neighborhood and after a day or two he learned they had a boy about his age. He made a point to go straight to the home and invite him to VBS which was starting within the next couple of days. When the boy’s mother told Bubba they were Jewish and he wouldn’t be going, Bubba decided to befriend him anyway and continue to not only invite him to church activities but talk to him about Jesus.

His concern over the spiritual condition of others started with his love and concern for his younger brother Matthew. One night the two boys came in to our bedroom after David and I had gone to bed and Bubba told us Matthew had something to tell us. Matthew had gotten saved that night after the boys had been talking about it. Bubba had an unfailing confidence in the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross for him and for each one of us, and he carried that faith with him for the rest of his life.

That faith carried him through some very difficult teenage years in fact, when because of poor choices that he made, he found himself in some very difficult and challenging circumstances. Amazingly, during that time his faith only grew stronger. As he relied on it to carry him through the difficulty, he grew closer to the Lord than he’d ever been. Bubba had a very strong foundation of faith. He knew and understood a lot of Scripture, and he had a true passion when it came to trying to make sure that all the people he loved knew Jesus as he did.

Because of that faith, I can stand here as his mama today and I can truly say that my son is in Heaven at this very moment. He is standing face to face with Jesus our Savior and his joy is immeasurable! I can barely fathom what he must be experiencing right now. I can only imagine the beauty of Heaven in being surrounded by the love of Christ and the peace of God. I don’t think our finite minds can even come close to comprehending what his reality is now and forevermore! I praise God for that!

I praise God for blessing our family with our Bubba, with our Nathaniel Lee, for the 29 years that He gave him on this earth. I praise God for the countless lives my son touched in his short time here, and for even more lives that will benefit through the gift of tissue donation that he made in death. I praise God for the incredibly loving, caring person he was, for the loyal friend he was, for the strong work ethic he had, for the amazing connection and strong inseparable bonds of love he held with his siblings, for the way he was able to pour out his heart to us and seek our counsel. I praise God that He never forsook our Bubba, that he led him through difficulties and gave him the determination to build something positive with his life.

Hopefully in a little while we will have the opportunity to share with you a very short video clip that took place at the 60th wedding anniversary celebration for David’s parents. David had retired within a month of that celebration. Tio John and Bubba conspired to honor his years of service with the FBI with a special surprise tribute to him. Bubba committed to driving out of town on more than one occasion to get special training on how to handle the flag since he had no military training. This was perhaps the most defining moment when we first realized how hard Bubba had worked to overcome some of the mistakes he’d made in the past by showing his dad the honor and respect he deserved. And this is probably one of the moments of Bubba’s life of which David is the most proud. He was a very special and amazing boy who grew into an even more special and amazing man.

Yes our lives are forever changed. Our family is forever changed, but not because Bubba is gone. He will never be gone from us. Those bonds of love we share with him will live on forever. We will carry him from this day forward in our hearts, and because we know Jesus like he knew Jesus, we are assured that we will indeed be reunited with him one day in eternity.

Our family has truly been completely overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of love and support given us. We are honored beyond words by your presence and by the many acts and expressions of love shown to us in countless ways by so many dear friends. We have felt your prayers as we know that God has wrapped us all in His strong arms these last few days. We greatly appreciate the sense of comfort having you here with us brings. We know that our God is a God of all comfort and healing, and it is our prayer that He will be the comforter to each of you that He has been to us through you. We love you. God bless you.