PORTAGE, Mich. — More than 1,100 people packed into St. Catherine’s in Portage Monday to remember the Mattawan volunteer firefighter who died on February 26.
Nathan Fruin, 22, suffered a heart attack as he transported gear to a crew as they fought a fire that night.
Fruin had been a volunteer with the department for five years.
How he died didn’t speak to how he lived.
Fruin was a 2009 graduate of Mattawan High School, where he was the marching and concert bands’ trombone section leader.
The choir Nathan’s younger brother sings in now opened the service with an a capella version of Toto’s “Africa.”
After she was finished, Boven told the congregation that she didn’t believe Fruin meant to say those words then for one person; he meant to say them Monday for everyone to hear.
Fruin will be cremated and buried at Maple Grove Cemetery in Mattawan.
